Naruto's Adopted Family (Alt Universe Story)
by TheFemaleReviewer
Summary: Imagine if Sasuke's family decided to adopt Naruto and the Uchiha's were never slain? Now, Naruto and Sasuke are brothers AND best friends! Follow these two boys as they meet all our old/new characters in exciting and BRAND-NEW ways!
1. Chapter 1

Alternate Universe Story 2

Naruto

This is Family

I wanted more than anything else to just be accepted there…but I was so different, so obviously different. Still, everyone seemed to like me well enough. All my insecurities were inside me. Everyone tried hard to make me feel connected.

"Naruto-kun, would you please take these potatoes home to your father?" asked the woman at the shop I knew as Samori-san. She and her husband sold vegetables and meat there. She was a close family friend.

I nodded and took them. She patted my head and smiled and I ran off.

My…father?

I got home quickly and handed the potatoes to a stern looking man with messy black hair. He usually wore a frown but at that moment a large paper was blocking his face. He didn't even look at me. I immediately looked down but then a memory came to me.

"_Don't worry, he might look scary like that but he smiles sometimes…well, at least he smiles at Nii-san." _

"These potatoes…Samori-san told me to give them to you." I said.

Sitting there in his usual arm chair, he put the paper down and looked at me. I regarded him with the most confidence I could muster. He glanced at them with absolute uninterest.

"Naruto." He said.

I turned.

"Yes, Fugaku-san?" I asked.

"Give these to your mother, she'll know what to do with them." He said.

My…mother? Again, I was stopped short by these labels.

I nodded and turned back around. The paper went back over his face. The barrier was replaced. It was always like that with him. That was one of the very rare moments that he spoke to me. And he rarely looked at me. I wandered off into the kitchen where Mikoto-san stood reading a paper with deep interest, the same interest Fugaku-san had.

"Fugaku-san told me to give this to you." I said. "It's from Samori-san."

Out of all the adults, Mikoto-san especially always had eyes for me. She folded the paper and put it out of sight as soon as I entered the room.

"Naruto, I told you to stop calling us by such formal names." She said, smiling down at me.

I nodded.

_Still…I can't imagine calling either of you that…_

"Here" I said holding the potatoes to her.

She grabbed them, shook her head and muttered something and then put them over our heads in one of the highest cabinets.

"Aren't those for us to eat tonight?" I asked.

She turned back around to me.

"No." she said, looking annoyed again.

I took offense thinking I did something wrong.

"What is it? Because _I_ brought them they aren't any good?" I asked.

She looked at me hard and then sighed and smiled. She bent her head and got to my level.

"No." she said. "It's because tonight we're having ramen…your favorite."

Suddenly, my cheeks felt hot. I turned away from her but she reached out and touched my cheek.

"Naruto…are you feeling that way again?" she asked.

I refused to look at her. More than anything I felt guilty.

"I want you to know something." She said. "Look at me."

Slowly, I turned my head to her.

"Everyone here loves you." She said. "We all love you more than you could possibly imagine."

I had only been living there for a month. After living on my own for seven years, since I was born, a month seemed like nothing. I still had doubts. I kept my distance. But…

She put her arms around me and hugged me and then she stood up, propping me up on her hip.

"You want to hear a story?" she asked.

I nodded, holding on to her and putting my head down on her shoulder. We walked out of the kitchen and through the room Fugaku-san sat in. She passed him and I could've sworn I saw him smile from behind that paper he read, but I shook it out of my head, as a mistake.

She continued to walk until we got to my bedroom. She sat down on the edge of my bed allowing me to move out of her hands and put my head in her lap.

"Seven years ago, on the day you were born, a really big fox demon attacked the village." She said.

My eyes wandered to the window next to us. I yawned. I'd heard the story before. She told it to me when I was upset because she knew I liked it.

"Everyone was scared and worried. No one thought the village would survive but then-"

"The Fourth Hokage appeared on this great big toad." I interrupted. "He created a lot of very powerful jutsus and even had the ability to summon a frog."

"Right." She agreed. "And with all these huge powers, he beat the fox demon and made it go away for good but while he was fighting, he suffered a fatal wound and died."

"Yup, but still…he's known as Konoha's greatest hero because he was strong and brave and never gave up." I said.

Mikoto-san smiled at me.

"Now that you've calmed down, will you tell me what's bothering you?" she asked.

"…The thing is, I'm not special like you guys." I said. "I can't do a Sharingan or a fire ball jutsu or anything like that…I just don't…belong here."

Her smile didn't fade. She brushed my hair back.

"You're more special than you could ever imagine, honey."

"You really think so?"

"Of course." She said.

I looked at the flowers blowing past the window outside.

"You know…I'd like to be a Hokage, too. So that I can protect the village and everyone in it and be a big hero like he was."

"Oh, really? Well, you're going to have to get better at your studies if you want to do that!"

I made a face and she smiled, wiggling her fingers. I knew what that meant.

Duck and cover!

I rolled out of the way but she caught me, pinning me down and tickling my sides. I squirmed and laughed. I tried to turn around and tickle her back but my fingers were too small and I couldn't stop laughing long enough to try.

"Naruto!" called a voice. "Naruto! I'm home!"

I sat up so abruptly, I almost head-butted Mikoto-san. She saw the sudden eagerness in my face.

"Looks like your best friend is home." She said.

I rolled out of the bed and stood up, watching the door. It was like I was entranced.

Any moment now…he'll come through.

And I was right, the door busted open and he stood there with his usual wide smile. I returned his smile and he ran at me and hugged me.

"Guess what? Guess what?" he said hopping up and down.

"What?" I asked.

"I finally did it! I was practicing with Nii-san and I did it! I can do the fire ball jutsu now!"

"Wow, Sasuke! That's amazing!" said his mother.

He ran at her and hugged her then he pulled my wrist.

"Come on, come on! I gotta show Dad! I gotta surprise him!"

"Let's do it!" I agreed.

We ran out of our room as fast as our little legs could carry us leaving Mikoto-san standing there with that perpetual smile.

_I know you love me…but sometimes, I just can't see how…_

We ran into the room where he still sat except there were three people surrounding him, they were all whispering seriously. Sasuke and I approached cautiously, knowing that when adults are speaking, children should be seen and not heard. Fugaku-san saw us standing there and held his hand up for everyone to cease talking. They all turned, saw us and then their expressions changed, very fleetingly, to something like fear before it changed to a blank gaze.

_Were they just talking about us?_

"Yes, sons?" asked Fugaku-san.

"Otou-chan…I…uh…"Sasuke said, looking down.

_He tells me to be brave but then he goes and starts talking like this? What a guy…_

"He has something to show you." I said.

He looked down at us both and then nodded.

"Excuse me, gentlemen, there seems to be something more important for me to tend to."

Their expressions teemed on annoyance but then they turned and walked off. Sasuke led his father and I out of the house and even further, out of the district. I hated leaving the Uchiha District. It reminded me of awful times…

We reached a lake and Sasuke ran out onto the dock. Sasuke's father walked right behind him but I stayed far back to the edge of the dock. If Sasuke's fire ball jutsu was perfect…meaning it was better than it was a month before, it had to be HUGE and I was in no way interested in getting caught in the cross fire.

Sasuke took a deep breath even from where I stood at the edge I could feel the hairs on my neck pricking up…he must've been pulling in a lot of…what do they call it…chakra? Yeah, that energy that ninja fight with. He pulled his head back and the abruptly flicked it forward, allowing the energy to escape his lips. And…it was A LOT of energy, just like I had predicted the flames whooshed over the lake and expanded almost fifty feet in diameter. I had seen Itachi's fire ball jutsu only once and it was still bigger than Sasuke's…but not by much.

When he was finished, he turned and looked at his father who stood there with his arms crossed. I walked up to them and stood next to Sasuke, curious at the expression on his father's face. Wasn't he amazed? Slowly, he nodded at Sasuke and put a hand on his head, ruffling his hair. It was the very first time I'd even seen Fugaku-san touch Sasuke.

"That's my boy." He said.

I smiled, feeling a rush of happiness overcome me at the same time it overcame Sasuke. We both had the exact same grins on our face. In many ways, we experienced emotions the same. We felt each other.

Slowly, his eyes shifted to mine. My smile slowly disappeared.

"I…I don't have anything new." I said.

_Actually, I don't have anything at all… I'm barely a ninja in training._

Slowly, he reached over and put his hand on my head, too. I looked up at him with wonder, feeling confused.

"Make sure when you train with Itachi, you bring Naruto, too…so that you'll both make it to the academy."

Sasuke turned to me and grabbed my hand.

"Yes, sir!" he said.

He nodded at us and walked off. We stayed there late, kicking our feet in the water and talking about the day.

"It happened like magic almost!" Sasuke said. "I could hardly believe it…it just came out of me!"

Sasuke was a weird guy. At first, he came off as kind of a loner…pretty stand-offish and closed-in but then when you got to know him, it turns out he's this smiley, happy kid that won't even hurt a fly. You see, the first time I met him, he saved me from a mob. Some of the villagers saw me coming one day and surrounded me and started throwing stuff and me and trying to pick a fight. I didn't know what to do… I felt so lonely and abandoned and no one seemed to care… All except him. He showed up and made them stop. And it wasn't just that time, all the times after that when I was shunned or hurt, he showed up and used his name, the "Uchiha" name to make everyone get scared and run off. At first, he would just shrug and pretend like it was no big deal that he helped me and then walk away but after every time we got closer and closer until finally…

That memorable day, he grabbed my hand.

"You know…I think it might be safer for you to live somewhere else." He had said.

I looked at him with wide eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…look at you…you look like a village rat wearing those rags. If your parents don't take much care of you, you should just come home with me!" he had said. "And besides, I'm not allowed out of the district, so I was thinking instead of me breaking the rules to keep coming out, why don't you just come in?"

I avoided his eyes.

"I…don't have parents." I said. "I think I'm doing okay on my own."

He shook his head.

"This is worse than I thought, come on!" he said.

He dragged me back to his house even though I kept protesting and telling him that it was fine. I was lying. Anything would be better than the hovel I lived in, licking up sugar cane that village children dropped. He was right, I did live like a village rat.

Oddly, all of his family was home, even Itachi. They were in separate rooms and, as I waited outside, Sasuke had to gather them all together. And then, from the window, he motioned for me to come in, it was the biggest moment of my life.

I walked into the large, spacious room where they all sat. Sasuke stood by the door. I entered and their eyes settled on me. I didn't know what to say, so I looked at Sasuke but he looked at his feet offering absolutely no help.

"Who is this?" asked his father.

Sasuke seemed even more scared into silence at having being addressed by his father. It was all up to me and, looking at his family and even seeing just a piece of his village, I wanted it. I wanted to live there more dearly than I had wanted anything in my life. Just because of the single fact that I had passed a dozen Uchihas on my way to his house and not one of them spared me a second glance… Unlike all the villagers who gave me those wicked, angry stares… They glanced at me curiously or openly…probably wondering why I was there. But it wasn't mean-spirited or cruel. One girl even waved at me. That place was like an entirely different village.

"I am…Uzumaki Naruto." I said. "And…I want to stay with Sasuke."

They looked even more confused.

"He doesn't have any parents." Sasuke said, finally finding his voice. "And…the villagers pick on him, they throw things at him and call him mean names. Everyone seems to…hate him."

I shivered at that word "hate", it was a word I commonly used to describe my feelings toward the villagers.

Mikoto-san's face soften.

"Awww." She said, standing up and coming toward me.

"So, that's where this bruise on your face came from…and these clothes…" she said.

Suddenly, she hugged me.

"Of course he can-"

"Wait." Fugaku-san had said.

Everyone seemed to hold their breaths.

"What was your name again?"

I looked around the woman at him. His eyes were closed, not on me. That helped me pull the courage to speak.

"Naruto…Uzumaki Naruto." I repeated.

Suddenly, Mikoto-san grasped my wrist.

"If that's true, then you're-"

"Mikoto!" he said.

She paused.

"Right." She said, seeming to remember something.

It was quiet for a long time. I realized everyone was waiting for Fugaku's final decision. It was definitely a patriarch.

"Sasuke, come here." He finally said.

Sasuke approached him slowly.

"Is it true that the villagers have been taunting him?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Yes…for more than two months now, I've been protecting him from them. They really hate him but…he's fine, really! He's a ninja like us and he's pretty good."

I blushed, hearing Sasuke compliment me was rare. Finally, he opened his eyes but instead of settling on any of us, they settled on his wife.

"Mikoto…arrange Sasuke's room…for one extra person."

I grinned.

"Yeah!"

No one else cheered with me though. Mikoto nodded at him and I saw a small smile on her face as she left. Itachi didn't seem to mind at all. He stood up and walked past me, nodding at me on the way. Then Fugaku-san stood up and walked out of the back door, heading for some place outside of the house.

"That's the way it is all the time." Sasuke said when we were alone. "You can't cheer like that after a decision is made and you have to wait until all your superiors leave to say anything else."

I scoffed and put my hands behind my head.

"Sheesh, your family's pretty uptight."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"That's ninja law, you idiot. Haven't you read rule 8 of the Ninja Handbook?"

I frowned.

"I didn't even know they had one of those."

Sasuke slapped his face with his hand.

"Gosh, there's a hundred rules in the Ninja Handbook." He said. "About what kinds of jutsu are forbidden and how to act around superiors and what Chunin, Jounin and Genin are expected to do. I only know rules one through ten since I haven't been to the academy yet, but rule eight explains what to do to show the utmost respect to your superiors."

By the end of THAT rant, I was practically drooling. He shook his head.

"Are you really a ninja?" he asked.

"Sasuke, Naruto." Said a voice.

I sat up sleepily and rubbed my eyes. It was dark. Sasuke lay on his side next to me. I shook his shoulder. It seemed like we'd fallen asleep sitting at the dock after Sasuke has showed his fire ball jutsu to his father. Itachi stood over us.

"Dinner's ready." He said.

I hopped up, almost falling into the water.

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "Ramen night!"

Sasuke and Itachi walked ahead of me, neither having as much excitement as me.

"Ew, I hate Ramen nights." Sasuke complained.

I ignored him.

"Yay, ramen, ramen, ramen…" I sang.

About two dozen footsteps later, all three of us kneeled down in the kitchen at the table, said a prayer, and began to eat. I made faces at Sasuke while I slurped up the noodles. He rolled his eyes and turned away but when no one was looking, he turned to me and revealed a mouth-ful of half-chewed ramen.

"Itachi." Fugaku-san said.

For some reason, we all stopped and looked…I guess because it was rare for Fugaku-san to directly address him. Itachi slowly turned his eyes to him.

"Yes?"

"You're excused from tonight's meeting." He said.

For once in my life, I saw Itachi's face reveal shock but it quickly dispersed into compliance. He nodded and it was quiet again. I glanced at Sasuke who shrugged and we continued eating beef ramen with shrimp and bamboo sticks. After dinner, Fugaku-san abruptly left the house. Itachi went to his room and Mikoto-san got Sasuke and I ready for bed.

"Oka-san?" Sasuke said as we pulled our clothes off.

"Yes?" she said.

Her back was to him as she helped me out of my over-large, white shirt and gray pants.

"I've been wondering about this…how was Naruto born if he doesn't have parents?"

I froze. Mikoto's hands were on me as she helped me get undressed so she felt my tension. She paused.

"Sasuke…" she said warily.

"He has to have somebody, doesn't he?" Sasuke went on.

I peered around her at him. He was giving her a very fierce stare. I realized, her response was as much for him as it was for me. We had a sort of twin telepathy, even at that young age, and just by looking at his face I could tell his true question was "Will there ever be someone coming to look for Naruto?"

Sasuke didn't want that. I could tell he was getting used to me, probably beginning to see me as his own brother. If it was possible that someone would come and get me one day…he would probably be sure not to get too close to me. I looked at the ground. As awful as it sounded, I didn't want anyone to come get me either…not if it meant I had to lose him.

"We'll talk about it after you guys take your bath."

Sasuke sighed. He hated baths. I liked them though. We both got into the same tub with the soap and bubbles and Mikoto scrubbed our hair. I gave Sasuke a soap-mustache and he gave me a soap-beard. Mikoto looked at us fondly, the way she usually did. We got out and toweled dry and then put on our night clothes. Sasuke wore really nice looking black silk pajama pants and shirt to sleep. I just had my underwear and a too-big t-shirt that I was given by the village homeless shop. Sasuke had the bed near the door and I had the bed next to the window but we both crowded into his bed.

"Tell us now." Said Sasuke showing a determination he usually only had during battle.

She slowly walked over.

"Calm down, Sasuke." She said.

Sasuke held out his arms to her in a child-like way I hardly ever saw from him. She held him onto him and slipped into the bed between us. She put our arms around both of us and we put our heads on her chest, lying in the perfect position to stare into each other's eyes.

"Are you ready?"

We both nodded, ears perked up and eyes wide…ready for the tale.

My Real Parents

"…Seven years ago, a fox demon attacked Konoha."

I frowned and jumped up.

"I know this story already!" I said.

"Wait a second, Naruto…this part of the story…is something I never told you."

Confusion crossed both of our faces. I settled back down.

"As you know, the Fourth Hokage saved the entire village but you know what else?"

I waited.

"He was married to a woman who was also a shinobi in this village and she was due to give birth to a baby on the day the village was attacked. That woman was named…Kushina and she was a very good friend of mine." She said. "She gave her life on that day the same way he did…and you know what her last name is?"

I froze.

Sasuke decided to respond.

"What was it?"

"Uzumaki…" she replied. "Uzumaki Kushina."

"That's my name." I whispered.

"Right…" she said. "Naruto, I believe that you're the son of the 4th Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki… They gave their life for you that day…giving the future to you, their only son, that makes you a village hero just like them."

"I'm…a hero?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Like I said before, you're very, very special Naruto."

Then she shifted, pulling something out of the pocket on her chest.

"I have this picture I took of her and him on that day…I never got to give it to them."

I grasped the picture, somehow frightened of opening it but something grabbed my hand…Sasuke's hand. Together, with shaking fingers, we opened the folded letter and pulled the picture out. Sasuke held onto one side with his right hand and I held onto one side with my left. A woman with fiery red hair stood there with a plump belly and a man wearing the Hokage cape stood behind her. Both were smiling huge and wide and looked down at her stomach.

"He looks just like Naruto." Sasuke said incredulously pointing at the man. "Look at his hair!"

The 4th Hokage's hair was blonde…just like mine. Living in the Uchiha District for a month, I had almost started believing no one had blonde hair like mine.

"Yeah, he definitely does." She said. "So, as for your question Sasuke, Naruto might not have Kushina and Minato physically…but he still has them in his heart."

Sasuke nodded.

"And of course, he still has us. We'd like to be your family, if that's okay with you Naruto."

I nodded vigorously.

"Can I have this picture?" I asked.

"Wait." She said, taking it back. "I want to frame it for you."

She got up out of Sasuke's bed, hugged me tightly, kissed Sasuke on the forehead and then walked toward the door.

"Time for bed, boys." She said and she cut off the lights.

In the dark, Sasuke's hand moved through the sheets and grasped mine. I held tightly onto him.

"Sasuke…I want to become a big hero just like…my father." I whispered.

He nodded.

"I wish my Dad was amazing like that." He said.

"No way, your Dad's still pretty badass." I replied.

We laughed and then soon we were both sleeping. I had a really jarring dream about a man in a mask and crying red haired woman. I ran through the images slipping in and out of darkness until finally, I came face to face with a giant fox demon… His teeth barred at me. His eyes were red. He pulled back his large, black lips and hovered over me then dove down like he was going to eat me alive!

The Secret Meeting

Sweat gleamed on my chest. I felt hot and uncomfortable. Sasuke's hand was still in mine. I slowly pulled it away from him and rolled out of the bed. I pulled my shirt off over my head and walked to the window, planning to pull it up but something caught my eye. Sasuke's father was walking with three Uchiha members. I had begun to recognize those men because they were around often. As Sasuke's father was the leader of the Uchiha Police Force, he was also kind of like the clan head. Those men were like his direct subjugates. As they walked away, I saw a shadow moving from tree to tree behind them. My eyes widened.

Could someone be planning to hurt Fugaku-san?

"Sasuke!" I whispered into the night.

He rolled over but didn't stir. I glanced back out of the window and decided it'd be better to just go. Not even stopping to put on some clothes, I ran out of the house in just my underwear and darted down the street. I followed the sound of footsteps about a mile down the street and watched as they and, seemingly, all the men from the entire village walked into the Main Hall of the Uchiha District, a place kids weren't allowed. I was aware that it was a very important building but I had no idea that they had their meetings there. I waited until everyone had gone inside then I ran inside with them. I continued to follow the footsteps but they were getting quieter and quieter. I hurried down the last corridor and came to a small, square room. All the footsteps were gone. No one was around. I stood there, feeling an eerie sense that someone was watching me. Quickly, I turned around and looked toward the door, then I turned back around and came face to face with a pair of Sharingan.

I jumped and involuntarily screamed but the person put their hand over my mouth and the sound was muffled. He deactivated his Sharingan and let me go. I stared at him with wide eyes.

"Itachi-san?" I exclaimed.

"Were you also trying to get into the meeting?" he asked.

Suddenly, two things came to mind. I remembered Fugaku-san telling Itachi not to go and I also remembered the shadow that had been following him. I put two and two together.

"You were the one following Fugaku-san!" I said.

He ignored me.

"If we go in this way, they'll catch on for sure…but there are some pipes big enough for us to crawl through in the other room. We can crawl down and listen through the vents."

He turned but I grabbed his hand.

"What are you up to?" I asked. "Your father told you not to go!"

He kept walking, dragging me along with him.

"You're going to get the both of us in trouble!" I said.

"Silence." He replied.

He had a manner of tone that you didn't question. I shut up for the most part but periodically muttered discontent. As we entered the next room, I was distracted from my fear of getting in trouble by my love for mischief. He removed a large poster and behind it was a vent large enough for both of us to crawl through, side by side. He removed the opening to the vent and I immediately crawled in.

"Wow…we're like _real_ ninja right now." I said.

"Just keep going straight until I tug your leg."

"Don't have to be so cold…" I muttered.

I crawled straight realizing that the vent was tilting downward. With every couple of feet we went, it got colder and colder.

"Should've put some clothes on…" I whispered.

Suddenly, I began to hear echoes down the vent. He didn't need to direct me anymore. My ears never failed me. I went straight for the echoing sounds, turned left, went straight, then made a right and we were kneeling right over the room. I could see hundreds of Uchiha men squatting down there. Some of them weren't even men. They were as young as ten years old. It made me glance back at Itachi wondering why he wasn't allowed to go this time…and why couldn't Sasuke ever go?

Itachi crawled up next to me and we both peered down into the room. A very old Uchiha member stood next to Itachi's father in front of everyone else.

"The question still remains…" the old man said to him. "Is the nine tails ready to be used for this battle?"

Fugaku was silent.

The old man tried again.

"I mean, did you feed the boy the potatoes filled with the chakra stimulants like we planned?"

Potatoes? My memory flicked back to Samori-san handing them to me telling me to take them straight to Fugaku-san. Chakra stimulants?

Finally he looked out to everyone.

"As the leader of this clan, I would like to know…do you all trust me?"

Everyone made a collective grunt of agreement.

"Do you all think that I will make the decision that is best for our clan?"

They all grunted again. He turned to the old man.

"I will not use the nine tails for this coup d'état." He replied calmly.

Suddenly, all the grunt of agreement turned to roars of disdain.

"What?!"

"Have you gone mad?!"

"Why not?!"

Everyone seemed to be yelling at once. I covered my ears. Itachi put his hand on my back.

"Quiet!" Fugaku screamed.

Everyone suddenly went silent as quickly as they had gone into an uproar. Fugaku's Sharingan showed brightly.

"This is the word of the man you chose as the head of this clan." He said steadily. "You can take it…or you can leave."

"So then what bargaining tool will we have against the village when we strike?" asked the old man.

"We will not strike." Fugaku said.

I thought there was no way the crowd could get any louder but I was completely surprised at their next cries of dismay. He turned around, seemingly walking toward the exit.

"Your Dad seems to be in a lot of trouble now…" I said.

Itachi didn't respond, his eyes were locked on his father.

"If you've gone mad then so be it!" said one of the people in the crowd. "You're being disloyal to the clan by backing down now!"

Another person stood up.

"Yes, we'll just appoint your son Itachi as the new head of the clan and take the nine tails for our own coup 'd'état!"

Fugaku-san paused.

"As for Itachi…you can make him the new head if you like, he's very strong, dependable and responsible and I have no doubt that he'll do right by you. And, in any case, I'm resigning."

The mummers of anger got louder. Suddenly, Fugaku-san turned around and again, his Sharingan was activated.

"However, while I am live…I will never allow you to lay a hand on my son."

Everyone was silent. It was so quiet; I was worried my breathing could be heard. I wondered what Sasuke had to do with this.

"...Your son?" asked the old man. "Are you confused? That child is not one of us."

No…wait…they're not talking about Sasuke…they're talking about…

Fugaku-san looked at each and every one of them.

"He has much more respect for this clan and what we stand for than any of you have in your little finger. He already calls this place his home, and you all his family. He's determined to die protecting each and every one of you. There's no way I could betray a boy who has that much respect for this clan." He said. "As of today, he is one of us…and I expect each of you to treat him as such."

He's talking about me…

Happiness flooded through me. That was the first time I'd ever heard him say something nice about me. But what could've made him say such things? Suddenly, a memory sparked.

Up until the second week I'd been living there, Fugaku-san didn't even look at me. I didn't mind. I was just content with being with Sasuke and Mikoto-san and watching the brothers practice. Life was good. But one night…

"What do you think you're doing here?"

I was alone. It was after hours and everyone was sleeping but…I was used to sleeping outside still so I found a nice patch in the grass to take a nap in but then I heard a voice. A man came out of the shadows. He wore a chunin vest and a leaf headband.

"What are you doing in this district, brat?" he asked.

"I live with them now." I said pointing back at the house.

He laughed.

"Yeah, right…you're such an idiot coming here. You think these people like you?" he asked.

He came into the light, he had a huge scar on the right side of his face.

"They're just planning to use you to destroy the entire leaf village so they can rule." He said. "And you're such an idiot coming here…now you're wasting my time."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"They sent me here to find you and bring you back before we kill everyone here and get rid of this pointless clan." he said.

He grabbed my arm.

"Now, let's go back."

Back? No…I couldn't go back. Never. Not there…not where everyone hates me.

I pulled my arm out of his grip.

"You're the idiot! These guys…they don't look at me the same way you all do!" I yelled. "They're just like me…they're ignored and treated badly…just like me! And you coming here saying all of this just makes me mad!"

My hair started lifting off of the back of my neck. I began seeing in orange. The man took a timid step back.

"One day, I'm going to become to Hokage and I'm going to protect everyone here with all my heart! I'm an Uchiha! I belong here!" I shouted.

My fists balled up and I was just about to lose my head.

"I'm not going to let you destroy this!" I exclaimed.

Suddenly, a voice sounded above me.

"Is there a problem…Kinocho?"

I looked up and saw Fugaku. The guy stumbled backward.

"It's pretty late at night for you to be in this district unannounced." He said.

They stared at each other. Even as a kid, I could feel the tension…it was enormous.

"No…no problem. Everyone was just wondering where the nine-…I mean, where that boy had gone. I was checking up on him."

Fugaku-san nodded.

"Well, as of recently, he's been adopted into my family. So, any time you want to speak to my son, you must address me first." He said.

The guy shrugged.

"Yes, of course." He said, and then he ran off.

"Naruto." He said, turning back to the house.

I looked up at him.

"Don't leave the house after dark anymore."

"Yes, Fugaku-san." I said.

At the time…I had thought I was in trouble but now I realize…that was the time…that was when he started thinking of me as a son…because I vowed to protect them like they were my family.

"What sense does it make for outcasts to exploit another outcast?" Fugaku-said to them. "This clan and that boy…we're all in the same corner."

And then he turned around and continued to walk out. When he was gone, the mummers ensued. The people begged the old Uchiha advisor to over-turn what Fugaku had said.

"I know it's difficult but whoever is the head has the last say. There's nothing I can do." He said. "As of tomorrow, Itachi Uchiha will be the youngest clan head in history, put your hope in him."

Everyone dispersed. Itachi and I waited until everyone was gone. Finally, I turned to him.

"I don't get it, Itachi-san…what did they mean by chakra stimulants?"

"I'll explain it as we leave."

I turned around and we crawled through the tunnel, walked through the main hall and started walking a long mile home.

"Chakra stimulants make your chakra explode a hundred fold. If someone who harnesses a big power is given something like that, it'll do some dangerous things."

My mind flashed to the note both Mikoto and Fugaku were reading. I recalled how Mikoto put the potatoes away on the highest shelf and had that annoyed facial expression at whatever the letter said.

"I can't tell you everything, because a lot of this is stuff you don't need to know until you become a full ninja but they were planning to use you to destroy the entire village."

I stopped in my tracks.

"The ENTIRE village?" I asked.

He nodded.

"But father wouldn't let them…he seems to have grown quite fond of you."

I continued to walk and threw my hands back behind my head with a smile.

"Yeah…it made me happy when he said that stuff about me." I said. "No one has ever said stuff like that about me before."

"If you become a good ninja, people will say good things about you often."

"Yeah…and you know what else?!" I asked. "Fugaku-san said that you have to teach me the basics like you teach Sasuke so I can get better too!"

Itachi shook his head and smiled.

"With your skills, we'll never leave the training forest."

"Hey!" I said.

He laughed. I watched him, feeling comfort in that sound.

"…I didn't know you were funny." I said smiling.

He shrugged.

"There's a lot to be happy about now. Your appearance in our clan is somewhat a blessing now."

I didn't know what he meant so I just nodded. Then something occurred to me and I punched Itachi in the arm.

"But hey, you're the leader now!" I said. "Isn't that awesome?! What are you gonna do?"

"There's a lot I want to do…but first, I'm going to fix this clan." He said.

Again, his words went right over my head.

"Man, Itachi…now I know why Sasuke wants to be just like you. It's great having a big brother. I can't believe you're the head now, that's so cool."

Like his Dad did earlier that day, he reached down and ruffled my hair.

The next day, things seemed to change a lot. When Sasuke and I woke up, Mikoto helped us get dressed but when I grabbed for my usual rags, she stopped me.

"Fugaku-san bought these for you to wear." She said.

And she handed me a bright orange long sleeved, wide-collared shirt with the Uchiha symbol on the back and a pair of white shorts. Very suddenly, I was dressing like them.

Itachi practiced with me a couple times but with his new role as the clan head, he had more time than usual but still not enough for a case as bad as mine. Sasuke and I spent most of the time just training together. He was still better than me. But I was far better than I would've been if I was alone. Very suddenly, I was fighting like them.

The rest of the Uchiha clansmen showed me a bit of a colder shoulder after what had happened that night, but before my eyes, they began accepting me again. Waving at me, asking me about my day, helping me carry groceries home. Very suddenly, I was one of them.

Team 7: Kakashi Sensei, Sasuke, Hinata and Me

Before we knew it, Sasuke and I were accepted to the academy. There we made friends with the guys there; Choji, Shikamaru, and Kiba; the five of us were know as the "Slack-Offs" since collectively, all we did was make jokes and kid around. Sasuke was the best in class but not by much. I wasn't the best or the worst…I was just somewhere in the middle. An average student. Soon, we were graduating. Sasuke's parents came. They were proud of both of us…even though I was just runner up to Sasuke. There was a swing hanging from a tree in the distance. It swung by itself in the wind, seemingly calling to me…

"Naruto!"

I turned, Sasuke waved at me and I ran after him and rest. No, that wasn't the swing. That was my family calling. We ended up in a three-man squad together. Sasuke was the best in our year, I was the most average and our third teammate, Hinata Hygua, was the worst in our year. Our sensei was Kakashi and he sat down with us on our first day. Sasuke and I were in the middle of a poking fight. Hinata, who I realized quickly doesn't say much, looked at her hands.

"Pay attention." Kakashi said.

We all looked at him.

"First we're just going to talk about ourselves. Say your name and then tell me about your likes and dislikes and your hobbies and dreams."

"I want to go first!" I said.

Kakashi nodded.

"Alright! My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I love ramen…and, if there's anything I dislike, it's the three minutes you have to wait for the ramen to cook. And my hobby is mainly training with Sasuke and…my dream is to become a village hero and surpass my father, the Fourth Hokage!"

Kakashi smiled at me.

"That's a nice dream." He said. "What about you Hinata?"

"Uhm…I like animals and…N-…uh, and, I don't really dislike anything. And my favorite hobby is gardening and being with N-…uh…"

Everyone waited.

"I don't really have any dreams."

"Come on, Hinata, you have to have a dream!" I said. "What's something you want more than anything in the world?"

She avoided my eyes and resolved not to say anything.

"Sasuke, what about you?"

The sunlight hit us. The Uchiha Crests on our backs shined brightly in the sun…on the back of his navy-blue t-shirt and my orange long sleeved shirt.

"I like a lot of things." He said shrugging. "I can't really pick one. I guess the number one thing I dislike the most is ramen nights, blech."

I made a face at him.

"And yeah, I guess my favorite hobby is training with Naruto, too. And I guess my only dream is just to be as strong as I can…to protect the people I care about."

"That's very wholesome of you, Sasuke." Kakashi said.

He shrugged.

"It's the truth."

Our missions reflected that. Our very first C rank mission turned out to be a B rank mission. We went up against these two ninja named Zabuza and Haku. It was incredibly difficult for us to beat Haku but Hinata, Sasuke and I were trapped inside this ice, mirror thing. Haku was pelting us with needles. It all looked helpless. But then Hinata sacrificed her life for me in there…and I couldn't just let that be in vain. She could use her Byakugan to see his chakra, so she knew which mirrors he was hiding in. When she gave Sasuke the cue, he'd aim his fireball jutsu there but we were still too short…still a couple of minutes too short. Haku, realizing that Hinata was our ace in the hole, aimed at me knowing that she'd try to protect me. She failed, only managing to use herself as a human shield for me…and that got me angry.

"Sasuke…watch Hinata for me." I said.

"What do you think you're going to do?" he asked.

I performed the same hand signs I had seen him do countless times.

"I'm gonna show you out!" I exclaimed.

"You idiot! It's just a waste of time, you can't do a fire-"

I finished the hand signals, puffed up my chest and blew as hard as I could at the mirror Hinata had pointed at last.

"Impossible!" Haku screamed.

"Incredible." I heard Sasuke gasp.

"…A-Amazing." Hinata whispered.

I couldn't do a fire ball jutsu…no way, instead of that, a giant ball of wind blew from my throat like a sword and cut right through the mirror Haku was in, cutting through it. Haku's mask broke and the entire ice mirror façade shattered. He stood there, looking at me with a dazed expression.

"I guess I…overestimated you." He said. "Go ahead, finish me off."

Sasuke and I walked up to him and stared him down.

"What do you think Sasuke, finish him off?"

Before Sasuke could respond, Haku turned around and darted away from us.

"He's running!" I yelled. "Hurry! Catch him!"

Sasuke hoisted Hinata onto his back and we darted for him but, unfortunately, he wasn't running. He was going to protect Zabuza from a fatal attack and died. I accused Zabuza of being heartless, told him how much Haku really cared for him…and somehow, I made Zabuza cry…

Sudden Rage

After that battle, there was the Chunin exams. It was a hard fight. Especially for Hinata, who was the worst in our class. I was alright after learning that new wind technique. I practiced a bit and discovered that I could do a wind-like variation of all the fire techniques that Sasuke and the other Uchiha could do. People had started calling me "White Flame". I had taken a real liking to the name. Wind was cool, it could easily sneak up on my opponent unlike something blatant like fire. Hinata was beaten by her cousin Neji in the first round but Sasuke and I rose all the way up to the final round and went against each other.

He ran toward me, fist raised, eyes set. I dove against him, knees locked, tensions high. At every turn, we seemed to be equal. My wind only helped his fire…so I couldn't use that. And he knew I couldn't so he didn't use his fire. It was mainly a taijutsu fight. No genjutsu either because Sasuke hadn't unlocked his Sharingan yet. Our fists pounded into each other. I got him a couple times and he got me a few times. When we were absolutely exhausted, the referee standing there in the ring got between us.

"What a great battle!" he said. "The Kage's have made their decision! You guys have both been awarded the position of Chunin."

"Wait!" I said.

The referee glanced at me and so did Sasuke.

"No…I still have some left."

"Don't worry, kid. It's over, the battle is over. You both won-"

"No!" I exclaimed. "I want…to win."

My level of excitement was blinding me. Orange clouded my vision. I could hear a deep voice throbbing in my temples: _Fight, Kill, Destroy, Win._

I darted for Sasuke who barely dodged out of the way. I was suddenly ten times faster. He struggled to keep up and was caught by a bad blow to the side of the head. The audience was on their feet.

"Naruto, calm down!" Sasuke yelled at me.

I couldn't hear him…I was slipping again. I caught my breath and blew as hard as I could at him. He flew backwards into the rocky barrier and I dove at him, pulled a Kunai out of my ninja pouch and cocked my hand back.

_Fight, Kill, Destroy, Win…_

I smashed into the wall and thrust the Kunai down into his chest.

_KILL HIM!_

Something stopped me. I had been staring at Sasuke's face that entire time but his eyes were closed. When he opened them, they were red…with two comma's in the middle.

"Don't." he said to me.

I stopped in my tracks, with my Kunai an inch away from his throat. He reached up and touched my face. I realized my teeth had grown over my bottom lip…I had fangs. And as my vision cleared I could see my fingernails had expanded. There was a weird bubbly, orange haze over my body. I was snarling…like some kind of animal. I dropped the kunai and tears slid down my cheeks uncontrollably.

"Sasuke…I-I'm sorry!" I said.

We both threw our arms around each other at the same time.

"It's okay." He said.

We slid down from the side of the rocky wall and made our way back to the referee. My senses were coming back slowly and I was shocked to realize that the audience was jumping up and down, screaming and yelling.

_Are they angry at me?_

"Wasn't that amazing, folks!?" the referee said looking out to the crowd. "These boys still had more to show!"

_No…they're excited._

"Give it up for Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha!" he yelled.

The crowd roared.

I stood there feeling confused. No one had realized what had happened. I almost… I couldn't stand there, I felt like a liar. I turned around, planning to run away and never come back but Sasuke caught my wrist.

"Just give them what they want." He said.

He raised his arm, the one that wasn't holding my hand, and I copied him. We both waved out into the audience.

"Come on! We're chunin now!" Sasuke shouted at me. "Get excited!"

Exuberance filled me.

"Yeah!" I agreed.

We ran around the ring waving and jumping up and down and acting…like children. The announcer also called the names of more children who were classified as chunin.

"Nara Shikamaru." He called. "And Gaara of the Sand!"

Gaara, a creepy guy with a solemn expression loped out. He gazed at me with interest. I grinned at him and showed him a thumbs up. He turned his head and crossed his arms. Shikamaru came and stood next to us rolling his eyes and complaining about the noise.

"Dude, we're winners! Stop sulking!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, you're lucky…I've never seen a quitter win before." Sasuke agreed.

I jumped on Shikamaru's back and tackled him to the ground, successfully getting a smile out of him. We stood there in front of the millions of people as the referee put medals around all of our necks. While Sasuke and Shikamaru made jokes, I glanced at Gaara. He had lost in his fight against Sasuke but he didn't seem too upset about it. He didn't say much at all. I sidled up to him preparing to make him laugh with a million jokes but he spoke first.

"You're…a jinchuriki aren't you?" he asked.

I stared at him, completely baffled.

"I can tell that you are." He said. "The way that you acted after they stopped the match…it was like a force inside you was telling you to keep going, right?"

I couldn't speak…how did he know that?

"I'm the same." He said. "I have a beast locked inside me too…if it wasn't for my father recently explaining it all to me…I'd be like you, unable to control my rage."

"And that's it, folks!" yelled the referee. "See you all next year!"

We were dismissed. I stared at Gaara as we walked on.

"Meet me near the trees outside, I have more to say." He had said.

I was a bit afraid of going…but he had sparked my interest. When we got into the hallway, Kakashi and Hinata stood there. Hinata had been in the hospital after her fight against Neji and she handed me some flowers.

"Did you see me win against Neji?" I asked her.

She smiled and nodded.

"Thank you."

"Nice eyes, Sasuke." Kakashi said.

I realized Sasuke still had his Sharingan activated from when he used it against me. Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"Wait…do you mean…?"

Kakashi nodded and put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder leading him to a long, wide mirror.

"Take a look."

Sasuke dashed for the mirror and put his face so close, his nose was pressed against it.

"Whoa! I can't believe it!" he shouted. "I did it! I unlocked my Sharingan!"

Hinata smiled.

"Congratulations, Sasuke." She said.

I tried to put the bit of jealousy I felt aside. I truly was happy for him…but then I was the only one in the family without a Sharingan. I resolved for just poking fun.

"How could you not have realized you had it on this whole time? You amateur!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"You try it, then." He said. "Wait…I just realized…how do I turn it off?"

"Just relax." Kakashi replied.

Sasuke let out a deep breath and calmed himself, just like that, his eyes were back to their regular black shade.

"Wow! …Now…how do I turn it back on?" he asked.

I slowly wandered away from them. Kakashi had a Sharingan, Hinata had the Byakugan and now even Sasuke had gotten his eyes. I didn't have anything inherently awesome like that. I was just…Naruto.

Heroes: Naruto of the Leaf and Gaara of the Sand

I quickly walked over to the trees outside. Slowly, the red haired boy named Gaara came from behind them. People walked by us carrying candy and snacks from the stands still excited about the exam finale. A couple of young kids came up to me asking for high fives or tips on how to be a better ninja. A lot of them saluted or nodded at Gaara on their way out, too. When most of our "fans" had gone, we sat cross-leggedly in the shade of the tree. I picked the flowers there.

"My father is the Kazekage." He said. "So, I don't have much time. My brother and sister will be coming to look for me soon."

"Wow, really?! My Dad was the Fourth Hokage!"

Gaara's eyes showed mild interest.

"I guess we have a lot in common." He said.

I nodded.

"But you said 'was'…did he resign?"

"No…he died the day I was born, along with my mother."

"My mother almost died the day I was born." Gaara said. "But some great medical ninja named Tsunade just so happened to be in our village at the time and she saved my mother. I hear she's a Leaf Ninja…that's why, ever since then, the Leaf and Sand villages have been eternal allies."

"That's cool. I've never heard of her though."

"She's great. We've got a couple of pictures of her in my house holding me." He said.

I looked down at the twig I was holding. A breeze ruffled my hair.

"So…what do you know about this jinchurki stuff?"

"Your chakra…is red." Gaara said.

Again, he knew more about me than I did. I had always felt that, whenever I was angry or upset, my chakra changed to red…but…I never told anyone that. We stared into each other's eyes.

"If you learn to control your beast, you'll be stronger than you could ever imagine…and you won't hurt your friend."

I thought back to Sasuke and felt guilty all over again. If it wasn't for his Sharingan…I would've murdered him.

"Did you learn to control it?" I asked.

"Not yet." He said. "I'm still training with my Father and learning…but very soon, I will."

"I still don't get it though…" I said. "How can I have a beast inside of me?"

"My father told me that all of the great ninja villages have beasts." He said. "And all of them picked children to carry their beasts for them. The children who carry beasts are called jinchuriki and they are considered to be the strongest children of the village."

My eyes widened.

"You mean I'm the strongest kid in the village?" I said, astounded.

"Well, you got to the final round, didn't you?" Gaara said. "Except…that friend of yours might be a bit stronger. He certainly got me."

I recalled his match with Sasuke and poked him with a twig playfully.

"He sure did, that's my Sasuke!" I said. "But you're still really good with that sand and I didn't see you lose your head once. You must be a great jinchuriki!"

"No…one day, I got really angry…and I accidently hurt my mother. After that day, I vowed I'd never let this thing control me again. So, I think you and I can be friends. I think we can be there for each other."

He held out a hand to me…and I grabbed it.

"I think so too, Gaara." I said and then I grinned. "I really like you!"

The wind rustled our hair, a leaf from the tree above us settled in his hair and the sand from the gourd behind him settled in mine.

"But something still bothers me, Gaara…" I said.

"What?" he asked.

"If I'm really a jinchuriki…how come no one ever told me?"

"Oh, that's obvious. You said your parents died, right?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Well, then there's no one to protect you. If the other lands found out you were the junchuriki, you could get kidnapped or killed and without parents to protect you…everyone here must be keeping it a big secret."

Suddenly, everything seemed to make sense. The way the villagers had looked at me in the past.

_Many years ago, a fox demon attacked Konoha…_

"It's me." I whispered. "_I'm _the fox demon."

That's why everyone looked at me like that. That's why I had those weird dreams. It was me all along.

But…it's different now. I'm finally getting the people in the main village to smile at me. And today, by becoming a chunin, everyone was really proud of me. I'm not a fox demon! I'm Naruto! I won't let this thing overcome me! I won't let it destroy me!

"I always thought my father killed the fox demon." I said. "How did it end up inside of me?"

Gaara looked confused.

"You can't kill a tailed beast." He said. "You just have to keep transferring it from person to person to keep it under control."

I looked even more confused than he had.

"What probably happened was…the previous jinchuriki died and your father put the beast inside of you afterwards but…he might've been killed in the process. Tailed beasts are very strong so, that sounds like what must have happened."

It made sense…the demon went on a rampage the same day I was born and both my parents died…it made sense that he would've…

"But why me?" I asked. "Why would he do something so terrible to his own son?"

My barely thirteen year old brain couldn't wrap itself around the idea.

"I thought parents were supposed to love their kids!"

Gaara laughed.

I was stunned. I didn't think a solemn kid like that could laugh. It creeped me out.

"What?!" I finally exclaimed.

"They DO love you, of course they do." He said. "By making you a jinchuriki, it's like telling everyone that you're strong and dependable enough to hold that position. If they didn't like you, they would never have made you a tailed beast carrier."

I still felt unsure. It probably showed on my face. I picked a dandelion out of the ground and tossed it into the wind. It blew away quickly, only offering my eyes a yellow flash.

"Don't you get it? Getting the title of Jinchuriki is the most special title a village can offer someone!" he said. "Your parents made you a hero."

That word again…

"I'm…a hero?" I asked.

"Of course you are…we all are." Gaara said. "Not everyone has enough chakra to hold a tailed beast down. As long as we keep the beasts under control and be strong ninja, we're the biggest heroes in the village…next to the kages."

My smile returned. I liked that.

"There's going to be a Jinchuriki summit, soon." He told me. "My father tells me that I'll be sent there with the Jinchuriki from the other villages to learn to control my beast. You should come, too!"

"You really think I can control this?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course. We'll never have to worry about hurting our families again." He promised.

"What are you doing?" a voice said.

Gaara and I looked up to see Sasuke standing on a limb of the tree we were sitting under. I gave Gaara a look and he nodded curtly at me. I didn't want people to know just yet.

"Just talking." I said.

I realized Gaara's fingers were still interlocked with mine and I slowly pulled my hand away, feeling oddly guilty. A couple of seconds passed with all of us avoiding each other's eyes.

"Gaara!" said a voice.

All three of us turned to see a red haired man wearing a white cape and a white and blue Hokage hat, a blonde haired woman waving and two teenage kids standing there nonchalantly.

"Come on, Gaara! We don't have all day!" said the girl I recognized as Temari.

Shikamaru had beaten her in the last round before he gave up.

The woman held out her arms.

"I'm so proud of you! Come here!"

Gaara didn't even spare me a second glance before he jumped up and ran into her arms. She pulled the medal from around his chest and they all admired it. His siblings were jealously proud of him, much the same way I was always jealously proud of Sasuke. A smile crept onto my face as I watched them. Suddenly, he motioned for me to come over. Shocked, I pointed at myself.

His expression seemed to say: "Who the hell else would I be talking about?"

I ran over as quickly as I could.

"This is a new friend of mine, Naruto Uzumaki." Gaara said.

His father outstretched his hand to me.

"You were amazing in that final battle, great job, boy." He said, shaking my hand.

"Aw, you're such a cute little thing." His mother said, fondly touching my hand and then letting go.

Temari scoffed.

"I know him, he's a loudmouthed idiot…" she said, then she winked at me. "But he's pretty strong."

Kankuro punched me in the shoulder.

"Nice job, you leaf ninja are nothing to play with."

"I'll see you soon, Naruto." Gaara said, meaningfully.

"I'll be waiting for you!" I replied. "Maybe next time we can fight each other."

"I'd like that." Gaara agreed.

The Nine Tails' Hatred

I waved them off as they walked toward the main gate. Sasuke appeared beside me again and opened his mouth like he wanted to say something but, behind us, Itachi, Mikoto and Fugaku walked up. Fugaku gave us each one nod. Itachi did the same. Mikoto smiled. I was used to their strictness by that point, but still, I couldn't assimilate it into my personality. And I doubted that they expected me to. I raised my medal to them.

"Check it out!" I said, bouncing up and down on the balls of my feet. "Can you believe it?! I'm a Chunin!"

My obnoxiously excited attitude always broke the ice with them. Sasuke held his up, too. Itachi grinned and plucked Sasuke on the forehead, something I never understood that he did only to him. Mikoto hugged both of us in our arms and then Fugaku-san said:

"I wouldn't expect less from you boys."

We looked at each other, always feeling immensely proud of his support, and then grinned. At home, Mikoto cooked a mixture of both of our favorite foods. After dinner, instead of going straight to bed like usual, I went for a walk. I walked out of the district and toward the lake Sasuke showed his Dad the fire ball jutsu at that one time. Ever since that one day, we never went back…but for some reason, at that moment, I felt drawn to water.

I stood on the dock, looking down at my reflection. I wasn't worried about being caught outside the District. There wasn't really a District anymore. After Itachi became the head of the clan, he worked hard with the 3rd Hokage to pull back on the restrictions on the Uchiha clan. After hundreds of conferences, the fences and gates were torn down and the Uchiha clan was working on being assimilated into the rest of the village. It wasn't easy though. Many of the Uchiha parents still taught their kids not to go past a certain line or landmark without their permission. And on the rest of the village's side, people still avoided the Uchiha area. It would take a lot of work but I trusted Itachi to do right by everyone.

More important to me than that, was the information Gaara had told me. Was I really special? I stared into the water, for a second, I could've sworn I saw a pair of vicious, red eyes staring back at me. Suddenly, I heard a pair of footsteps behind me. I whirled around, keeping my hand on my weapons pouch.

"Relax." Said the voice. "It's just me."

I'd know that voice anywhere…

I immediately calmed down.

"What are you doing sneaking up on me like that?"

"What are you doing out here so late?"

I sighed.

"Just…thinking." I muttered.

"You? Thinking? Now I know it's serious." He said.

I didn't reply. I was still looking down into the water wondering if the change was just my imagination.

"That Gaara kid…are you thinking about him?" he asked.

My mind flashed back to when I met his family and suddenly, something occurred to me.

"His parents…look like mine." I said. "Except my Dad has blonde hair and my mom has red hair…did you see that? It's like the exact opposite."

Sasuke shrugged.

"So what?" he asked.

I gave him an annoyed look.

"It doesn't matter does it?" he asked. "He's just some kid I beat. He wasn't even that good."

"Don't be mean." I said. "He had respect for you."

"Yeah, well, he_ had_ to. I basically smashed him." Sasuke replied.

"You barely won that match!" I yelled. "If it wasn't for that spiraling flame attack Itachi taught you, you'd have bitten the dust."

Sasuke shoved me, a bit harder than usual.

"Shut up." He said. "You're one to talk. Trying to look good for Hinata, you almost got yourself killed with that match against Neji."

_Neji…that's right…another time that red chakra saved me._

"I wasn't trying to look good for anyone!" I shouted at him.

_That's a lie…if there's anyone I'm trying to look good for it's _you_…_

"Liar." He retorted.

"You're just jealous." I said.

"Of you?!" he exclaimed. "Yeah, right."

He was pushing me…really pushing me…

"What, do you think just because you made Chunin too you're better than me?" he asked.

I gritted my teeth.

"I could handle you with one hand behind my back any day! I was just holding back that last fight!"

_Why don't you just…shut him up?_

"And now that I've unlocked my Sharingan, you're not even a match for me!"

I balled my fists.

_Make him suffer._

Sasuke read my body language and it got him even more turned up.

"You wanna fight it out right now?" he asked.

_Make him bleed._

He pulled out a kunai.

_Make it so that he never questions you again!_

No…wait…I…

_Destroy him!_

My body reacted to the deafening voice inside me. That red chakra…it started seeping out again.

_Kill him!_

No…I can't…

_KILL!_

I fell to my knees, holding my head in my hands.

"…S-Sasuke." I managed to gasp. "Run!"

Sasuke did the exact opposite. He knelt down next to me as I gripped my shirt. I kept seeing flashes of red and white. I could feel my teeth elongating, my fingernails growing sharper.

"Stop!" I yelled. "Don't…make me do this…"

_Kill him! Kill!_

"No…stop…leave me alone!" I yelled.

Sasuke put a hand on my back.

"Naruto…calm down."

I looked up at him fiercely.

"I'll kill you! I'll destroy this entire village! I'll destroy everyone!" I screamed at him.

Sasuke's expression turned to shock. He let go of me. I doubled over and gripped my head again.

"…No…" I moaned.

_Do it._

"No."

_Erase him from existence!_

"I'd…never let you hurt Sasuke!" I growled.

It was a losing battle. I could feel my anger to protect Sasuke mixing in with my anger to beat him. Soon it would become so mixed together… I wouldn't be able to remember what I was doing and why… And then the beast would…

"Naruto."

I looked up. Sasuke's Sharingan gazed steadily into my eyes.

"I told you…to calm down."

My heart beat slowed down, my vision cleared, my blood stopped boiling, I could catch my breath.

_Don't listen to him…he's trying to trick you._

I glanced down at the ground but then Sasuke cupped my cheek in his hand.

"Look at me." He said.

I looked back up into his eyes.

"I won't let this thing overcome you." He whispered. "You're going to stay with me…right?"

I nodded slowly.

"Good…because if you left me…I don't know what I'd do." He confessed.

Heat rushed to my cheeks and it wasn't because of the Nine Tails. I put my arms around him in a tight hug. I knew I was finally free once my ears came back to reality and I could hear the sound of Sasuke's slow breathing. Tears fell over my cheeks. I started talking. Talking was the number one way I calmed myself down out of something. If I was ever silent, that was a bad thing. We sat there on the dock, looking out into the water and he listened to me. He listened to every single word I said. I told him everything that Gaara had told me…but I also told him my fears and insecurities.

"It's like the Nine Tails is just full of hate." I whispered. "And whenever I get angry…all that hate just surrounds me. It makes me feel like I'm going to drown."

"It's fine." He replied. "We can pull through this."

…_We?_

"I…think you should stay away from me. Twice today…I almost-"

"If it was anyone else, you'd have done something terrible." He said. "But…because it's me, I could snap you out of it."

He didn't reply, he was right.

"No matter what happens to you…even if one day, this beast swallows you whole and there's nothing left. I'll still stand beside you. I'm not going anywhere." He promised.

Somehow, that promise meant more to me than anything he could've said.

"I-I'm scared, Sasuke." I whispered. "I don't want to hurt anyone."

"You won't." he said. "Not as long as I'm here. I'll be your guard."

I held onto him tighter. As of that moment, I had nothing else to depend on. But it had been like that for years… Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke…that was all I had ever really known. He taught me everything…so I was pretty reluctant when I had to go…

Jiraiya Arrives

"I'm his Godfather."

"Since when?" asked Mikoto-san.

She had her hand on my left shoulder basically shielding me away from the mysterious man with white hair. However, I sensed no danger from him. Actually, he seemed a bit familiar to me.

"Since his father named me his godfather months before he was even born."

"Then where have you been all this time?" asked Itachi.

"I've been doing extensive long-term missions for the Hokage, very secret. I just returned to the village now after having successfully terminated a…potential issue in the western lands."

"A potential issue?" asked Itachi. "As head of the Uchiha clan, I ask that you explain."

"Well, since they've been erased, it's not much of an issue now. A small group named the Akatsuki, I and a couple of my comrades took care of them some weeks ago and now, finally, I'm able to return."

"What do you want with him? Why can't you just visit once and leave me him alone?" asked Sasuke.

Usually, he feigned a deep shyness around adults but that day…he was determined.

"I think you know perfectly well why." He said. "Naruto's unstable. The Third Hokage offered me a mission to take him to the distant land of Iron to train with the other Jinchuriki's at the Jinchuriki Summit and I accepted it. There, he'll train to control the Nine Tails power so he doesn't go on a rampage."

Fugaku-san had been standing there quietly but now he opened his mouth.

"That information about him was classified…he wasn't supposed to know-"

"I'm well aware that everyone was told to keep it a secret for his safety…but I've been keeping tabs on him for a couple of months now and I've realized that he and your son there have both discovered the truth. That other jinchuriki boy from the sand village let the cat out of the bag."

Fugaku-san said nothing.

"It won't be for a long time." He said. "I understand that you've come to think of him as your family but…I was watching that last match at the Chunin exams…if it wasn't for the fact that your son unlocked the Sharingan at that precise moment, he might not be standing next to you right now."

"That's a lie!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"Sasuke!" Mikoto-san said, grabbing his arm.

"Naruto would never hurt me!" he yelled.

"Do you still believe that even after you barely managed to stop him from ripping your head off when you were down by the lake a couple days ago?"

Sasuke looked at him angrily but said nothing. From behind Mikoto-san, I looked down at my feet. How could he be so right? And I had just met him?

"It's because everyone tried to keep it a secret that makes it so difficult now. If he was told earlier then the power wouldn't be bursting out of him so dangerously like this." He said. "It's for everyone's best interest."

Fugaku-san opened his eyes and, for the first time in my life, they locked fully onto mine.

"Naruto, you're a Chunin now." He said. "That makes you a man in my eyes. It's your decision alone to make."

"Mikoto." He said, still looking at me. "Let him go."

She reluctantly stepped aside and I walked up to the man. I could see Sasuke beginning to smile. He believed there was no way I'd accept his offer.

"What do you say, Naruto?" he asked me. "Wouldn't you like to tame your power?"

I looked back at everyone…Itachi-san, Fugaku-san, Mikoto-san…and…Sasuke.

"Yes." I said.

Even without turning around, I could feel the pain Sasuke felt. Even without looking at his face. I felt guilt, but I replaced it with the prospect of adventure. I nodded, trying to get myself into the spirit.

"I have to." I said. "I want to help this village. I want to be a hero."

Itachi smiled at me.

"Spoken like a true ninja." He said. "I'll be interested in seeing how much you've grown once you come back."

"And you'll finally spar with me?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"Perhaps, but I doubt you'll get that strong…"

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

He laughed and we fist bumped.

Fugaku-san nodded.

"Wise decision." He said. "You've become mature. You're worthy of that Chunin title."

Mikoto-san looked at the man.

"How long will he have to train?" she asked.

"Two years." He replied. "Possibly three."

Even I was shocked at that, I had no idea it'd take that long…by the time I'd see them again, I'd be…a lot older. Mikoto nodded, accepting it.

"You'll write us letters, won't you?"

I smiled, thrilled at the prospect of writing someone.

"Sure!" I said. "Everyday!"

I avoided Sasuke's eyes and he avoided mine. Instead, I turned back to the man.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Jiraiya." He replied.

"Can I have a couple days to prepare?" I asked.

"Of course." He said. "I'll be back in three days."

Final Fight

The entire clan caught wind that I was leaving pretty quickly. All the Uchiha girls that often came by the house to fawn over Itachi, stopped by to give me little flower bouquets that they made. I thanked them and told them I'd take them with me but had no plans of that. Jiraiya told me to pack light. I wouldn't need much.

The younger boys that often came around to deliver things from their brothers or fathers to Itachi, came by to have last minute sparring matches with me. I won them all easily.

"Wow! The White Flame really IS a Chunin now!" they exclaimed.

I still hadn't taken completely to that nickname. Calling someone in the Uchiha clan "white" was like calling a sheep "black", it made my difference too obvious for my liking. The women I bought tools and groceries from gave me an extra kiss on the forehead and the men I passed gave me an extra nod. In the main parts of the village, the fact that I was leaving was a bit less known but everyone was still so happy about my win at the Chunin Exams that they patted me on the back and high fived me just for that.

"Can you believe it?! There were THREE leaf ninja in the finals this year! We're really awesome, aren't we?!" everyone would say.

I was glad I was giving the Leaf Village pride. That was what I wanted to do as Hokage anyway. Somehow, people were already seeing me as a hero. I had to uphold that name somehow… I had to overcome the beast inside.

Of course, even though everyone around me seemed proud and happy, there was one person that wasn't… And unfortunately, what that one person thought meant the world to me. Even though we slept in the same room, somehow he had managed to give me the silent treatment for a full two days straight.

Finally, it was dawn of the day I was supposed to leave. I had a bag packed and ready by the door. There was one final thing to put in that bag. I looked at the picture Mikoto-san had framed for me. The picture of my real parents while I was still in my mother's stomach. I hugged it to my chest before putting it in my bag.

_Do you guys think I'm going the right thing?_

I felt jittery and nervous. I didn't want to leave…but I had to. Sasuke was nowhere to be found. I walked through the whole house twice, looking everywhere for him.

"Looking for Sasuke?" asked Itachi.

I nodded.

"He left this for you." He said.

It was a folded sheet of paper, I took it and read.

"Meet me at the training grounds."

I looked up at Itachi.

"Don't worry." He said to me. "He'll come around."

I balled the paper up and ran straight for the grounds.

As I stepped foot there, I noted a change in our surroundings. Something felt different but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Why are you here?"

He had his back to me but then he turned around. His Sharingan was activated.

"I wanted to come to the first place we went to as a team." He said. "Remember how we passed Kakashi's test?"

I did remember. Sasuke and I had been pros at teamwork by that point since we had been training together since we were seven. After we incorporated Hinata's strengths and weaknesses into the game plan, the test was easy. We weren't able to grab the bells but our effort was so great that Kakashi overlooked it. We passed with flying colors.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"I want to fight you one last time before you go." He said.

I…shouldn't…

"Why?"

He smiled.

"Just one more time…so I don't forget."

His tone was so soft, I couldn't say no.

"Alright." I said, positioning myself for battle. "Let's go!"

His Sharingan certainly did pose a problem. He was faster than me. He dodged everything I threw at him but I knew him so well, even though I couldn't keep up, I could guess the exact spot he'd move his leg or what attack he'd use next. The fight ended when he shot a fireball jutsu at me that definitely would've fried me alive had I not slipped on a rock and fallen into the river next to the training grounds. When I resurfaced, I could hear him laughing. I swam to the shore and looked up at him.

"Are we done yet?" I asked.

He grinned down at me and held out a hand to help me up.

"Sure."

Instead of using his hand to get out, I tugged on him and pulled him into the water with me. We splashed each other and dunked each other's heads under beginning a never-ending tag contest. Finally, what seemed like hours later. We crawled out of the water and fell onto our backs in the sunlight. It was still early. Jiraiya wouldn't be coming until noon.

"You're not mad at me for leaving, are you Sasuke?" I asked.

He was silent and then finally he sighed.

"When I was a kid, I used to have nightmares that one day, your real parents would come back and take you away from me."

I turned to him with an eyebrow raised.

"But my parents are-"

"I know." He said. "So…it was like a nightmare that would never come true, right? Well…when that man came, I felt like my nightmare had come true after all. That's why I was avoiding you like that."

I closed my eyes.

"But…we're not little kids anymore, you know? I get it." He said. "There's more important things than…just having everything my way. It'd be selfish of me to get mad at you for leaving. I think you're really doing the right thing…and besides, when you get back, you'll probably have a lot of awesome stories to tell."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew he was being truthful. I opened my eyes and turned to him.

"You bet." I said. "You better keep training so that when I get back, I don't clobber you."

"Yeah, right…I'm pretty sure I won this fight we just had." He said.

I sat up.

"Come on…he's probably waiting for me by now."

Sasuke stayed lying down like that. He looked up at me.

"No regrets…right?" I asked.

He shook his head and then, suddenly, he dove at me, slamming me back into the grass. I pushed him off of me and rolled on top of him. We went back and forth like that for a couple of minutes until he succeeded in pinning me down.

"Seriously, Sasuke." I said. "I have to go soon."

Slowly, his fingers brushed my hair from my forehead and his thumb stroked the side of my face all the way down to my chin. A hot sensation bubbled under my skin. I froze. Then suddenly, he stood up and brushed the dirt off his pants. He headed for the opening in the fence without another glance in my direction. I lay there for a couple more seconds feeling dazed but then I got back up and darted after him.

Departure

They stood there giving me that silent praise I was so accustomed to as I slung my backpack over my shoulders. Jiraiya put a hand on my head.

"He's in good hands." He said.

We were at the gate of the hidden leaf village. It was the first time Mikoto-san had left the district since the Chunin exams. I heard her say on the way over that there were a lot of shops in the main part of the village that she'd like to go to. I hoped that meant the barriers were breaking down.

I could see someone running for us in the distance. I couldn't make out who it was until they were right in front of me. Hinata took her place next to Sasuke and smiled at me.

"Good luck, Naruto!" she said.

I smiled.

"Thanks, Hinata."

Slowly, I allowed my eyes to move to Sasuke's. His lips moved. He mouthed something at me and I smiled and nodded. I turned around and looked up Jiraiya who nodded at me. It was time to go. We took a straight path out of the village and I forced myself not to look back until the village was only a dot in the distance.

"If you're my godfather doesn't that mean you knew my parents?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I trained your father." He replied. "Taught him mostly everything he knew."

"Wow." I said. "This is going to be fun."

"Sure is." He said.

"So what's the first thing I'm going to learn!?" I asked. "I want to learn how to do an gigantic amazing jutsu! A huge one!"

"Well, one of your father's most special techniques was a neutral natured jutsu named the Rasengan." He said craning his neck over my head at something. "We can learn that on our way to the Jinchuriki summit. It's gonna be a long travel, after all…"

"Rasengan?!" I repeated.

Jiraiya looked off at some girls who were wearing bikini's heading toward a nearby river.

"But first, let's do some sightseeing!" he said, eyes practicing popping out of their sockets.

I glanced at the girls and rolled my eyes.

"You're…kidding, right?" I asked.

Clearly, he wasn't because he headed straight for them. A master of stealth, the guy was submerged in trees peeping at them through a telescope in seconds.

"This guy's…a pervert." I muttered.

Up high above the girls in the tree, I smirked.

"Ero-Senin!" I called. "I'm waiting!"

The girls looked up and saw him and he ran for the hills. I jogged after him, laughing all the way.

"Hey, Ero-Senin wait up!"

"Don't call me that!"


	2. Chapter 2

Sasuke

*Sasuke the Slacker*

The last words he mouthed to me rang out in my head over and over again, even when he was nothing but a dot in the distance standing next to the man with long white hair. I won't lie. Deep down inside, I despised that man for taking him away from me. My best friend. The best thing that happened to my life. But as time wore on… I had to let my tensions go. Life still went on.

The Uchihas were assimilating to the village better. Our family didn't move out of the district but a lot of other families did. I used to be special in school because I was the only Uchiha in my class, but now, every where I looked there were kids just like me. Some of them had unlocked their Sharingan at a younger age and were better than me. I'll admit that I started to feel bitter…and depressed. I couldn't really figure out how I was special or important. Yeah, my brother was the head of the Uchiha clan but that didn't matter anymore because the clan had dispersed. The other Uchiha didn't have to respond to Itachi, they began responding to the Hokage alone.

"It's okay, Sasuke." Itachi had said one day when I bitterly brought it up. "I purposely set it up this way so that there would be no animosity between the clan and the rest of the village. I wanted us to be appreciated and accepted here."

_But I don't feel appreciated or accepted…_

"I know you miss Naruto." He said. "Just wait for him, he'll come back."

"That's not what it is at all!" I retorted.

He walked up to me and flicked my forehead. The familiar action reminded me of something.

"We don't even get to train anymore. Suddenly, you're constantly busy."

"I've been promoted, Sasuke." He said. "Not only am I the head of our clan but I'm Sarutobi Sensei's right hand man. There's a lot that I have to do."

I understood but I was a kid. I lost one brother and I felt like I was losing another. Itachi was hardly ever home for dinner. It was always my mother and I. Maybe I was being spoiled but I was sick of my parents. They were constantly bugging me. It was kind of my fault. Ever since Naruto left, I kind of fell backwards in maturity. I spent a lot of time hanging around with Konohamaru and boys younger than me, making up a new team of "Slacker Boys".

Author's Note: (Because Naruto lived with Sasuke, he never met Konohamaru meaning that Konohamaru kept feeling overshadowed by his grandfather's Hokage position and like he didn't have a purpose or meaning in life. Instead of finding a purpose for himself, he and Sasuke became something like the village punks.)

We pulled pranks and wasted time like Naruto and I used to do when we were VERY young. I often got caught so the others wouldn't get in trouble.

"Sasuke, when are you going to stop hanging around these little kids?"

"Konohamaru's only four years younger than me… He's not little."

My mother sighed and said nothing. My father would hardly ever look at me. It was like I was back to square one. Busting my ass just to get my family to stop fawning over my older brother and notice me. But instead of trying, I quit while I was ahead. Who cares anyway? Not me…

"You're lucky, Kakashi-Sensei." I muttered one day when I was practicing. "Mom and Dad are always on my back. You're old so you don't have to answer to anyone. You make your own rules."

It was a couple of hours after Kakashi sensei had shown me a new attack named the "Chidori". He wanted me to learn it to add to my arsenal of techniques. I was taking my time figuring it out. I wasn't too bent on learning _anything_ that had to do with ninjutsu lately. He leaned up against a tree reading that book he constantly had shoved up in front of his face. Hinata punched the tree on my other side, perfecting her gentle fist. She always said that she wanted to get better so that when Naruto got back, he'd be proud of her. I lay up against the tree between them both tossing a kunai knife from one hand to the other.

"No, _you're_ lucky." He replied. "Some people don't even have parents."

"Whatever." I mumbled, not thinking about it at all.

As far as I was concerned, everyone had parents…and they were ALL annoying. Kakashi raised his eyes from the book.

"Oh? Have you already forgotten about Naruto?" he asked, pausing to look at me.

My fingers stuttered and I caught the kunai knife wrong, barely dodging as it came crashing down onto my face.

"He had no parents and life definitely wasn't a cake walk for him. Focus on being a good ninja and stop playing around. Life isn't all childs play." He said.

Kakashi had never scolded me before. I took a lot of offense to his words. I stood up, shoved my hands into my pockets and walked away from them.

"Sasuke, where are you going?" Hinata called.

"Back to my stupid home and my stupid life." I retorted.

I felt guilty as soon as I said it. Kakashi might've thought that his words had gone through one ear and out of the other but I heard him. And I was sorry… I might've gone to my bedroom, stomping my feet and slamming the door angrily but in the dark, I stared at the empty bed with the leaf symbols' all over it. It had been empty for ten months by then. I walked over to the bed and my finger grazed the top of the sheet.

"You…" I whispered. "What are you doing now?"

I knelt next to the bed and put my head down.

"I wish you were here."

*The New Team Member*

A couple of days after my fourteenth birthday, I went on the most dangerous mission I had ever had. Team 7 was called to the Hokage mansion.

"A couple of ANBU spies have been killed in the Hidden Rain Village." He said. "It's a serious issue."

I stood there next to Kakashi and Hinata. The Ino, Shika, Cho team was there, also. And so was Rock Lee, Neji and Tenten. By that time, we had all made Chunin. Even though Shikamaru and I were the first, they all made it the second time around. There were a couple of older jounin teams there, too.

"We don't have many jounin now." Sarutobi Sensei told us. "So, I'm calling on the next in line. I sense a serious issue in the Rain Village. All the ninja I've sent there, ANBU or not, have not returned."

The room was tense. I felt the sweat dripping down the side of my face.

"Do not be alarmed. I'm not sending anyone out there."

Everyone in the room visibly exhaled. It was a time of peace afterall, people were terrified at the prospect of danger. I kept a solid face but scoffed inwardly, I was calling them cowards.

"I need you all to go on patrol around our allied villages." He said. "Any minute now there could be an attack from this…Akatsuki. Many villages trust us and so we need to keep a vigil for them while they stock up their military."

Shikamaru's team was sent to guard the hidden sand village. Neji's team was sent to guard the hidden cloud village. And so forth until every team had been sent somewhere except ours. They all left. The Hokage's eyes settled on ours.

"So, when do you want us in the Rain Village?" Kakashi asked.

Hinata's mouth dropped open but I kept my shock inside.

"Excuse me?" I said steadily. "I thought it was too dangerous to send anyone out there."

The Hokage leaned forward in his desk.

"I'm sorry for lying to you." He said. "But I needed to keep the general ninja population at peace. We're preparing…for a war."

My calm, cool, collected attitude flew out of the window immediately.

"What?!"

Kakashi gave me a look. I immediately calmed myself down.

"I attended a conference a couple of days ago with the other Kages of the other villages and an intruder stepped in to declare war on all of the ninja nations." He explained.

Kakashi nodded.

"So, you need a spy in the Rain village after all?" he proposed.

The Hokage shook his head.

"I wasn't telling the truth when I said that we had no intel on the Akatsuki. We have enough to prepare a counter attack but the attack must be quick and discrete." He said. "The only reason I want you three to head to the Rain Village is because I believe the Akatsuki members who were there have moved out and the villagers who remain may be able to provide information on the members who used to be there."

We all looked him in the eyes.

"This is a tracking and information seeking mission." He said. "Not an attacking mission… However, because of the precariousness of this situation, this mission will be your first S- Rank mission."

"S-Rank?" Hinata said.

"Your team is great for this." He said to us. "Kakashi, your dogs have a sense of smell that transcends even water, Hinata your Byakugan can see through solid objects for miles and miles and Sasuke, you can use your Sharingan to detect any chakra disturbances that can reveal untruthfulness in whoever you interrogate."

Hinata shuffled her feet, it was obvious she was unsure. If Naruto was here, he'd say something ridiculous and obnoxious to make us all forget about our tensions because we were too busy laughing at him. But…

"However, you're not yet complete enough for this mission." The third hokage said.

We all looked up.

"Naruto Uzumaki used to be your fourth team member. But he won't be back with us for two more years."

I looked down.

_We know that…_

"So, I've taken the liberty to give you a temporary team mate to replace him that will solidify your interrogation abilities."

Suddenly, an ANBU member popped up next to the Third Hokage. My eyes locked on the ANBU member. I recognized him without even one spare second.

_Nii-San…?_

"Her name is Satomi." The Third Hokage said.

My eyes reluctantly lowered from the holes in the mask I often saw on Itachi's desk at home and settled upon the girl. She wore a sleeveless white shirt that extended into tight-fitting white shorts and was separated by a loosely tied red belt. Her metallic Konoha headband was stitched onto the front of the red belt.

"Uchiha Satomi." She said, turning around and allowing us to see her back.

A tan weapons pouch hung from her red belt but more importantly was the white and red symbol on the back of her white shirt. The same symbol that was on the back of my navy blue shirt…

"I thought there were no other Uchiha's in my year." I said. "Where did she come from?"

"She was sick." The Third Hokage said. "She was being held in the hospital for about four years now."

I rolled my eyes and pointed at her.

"I don't think we should allow someone fresh out of the hospital to take the open spot in our group." I said. "It would just slow us down."

The girl's stoic eyes turned to immediate rage. She glared at me.

"I'm not weak if that's what you're thinking." She spoke up.

"Whatever."

I crossed my arms and looked at the wall. I didn't care about anything she had to say.

"There's a disease going around… In the Uchiha clan. If you surpass the levels of the Sharingan too quickly, you can be in mortal danger." She said.

I raised my eyebrows and looked at her.

"Oh? Interested now, huh?" she smirked at me. "I was in the hospital because I reached level three of the Sharingan with three todems when I was eight years old and could cast genjutsus using my pinky finger. Not because I was some sickly child."

The room was quiet. For a moment it seemed like it was only us two.

"Just looking at you, I can already tell you're just a level two…just barely."

I scoffed.

"Whatever, you're just a girl." I muttered. "I could do that if I tried."

She snickered.

"Oh, if you tried, huh?" she asked. "What's holding you back, big man? Just be honest. You can't because you're WEAK."

"Relax, Satomi." The third hokage said.

"He started it." She said.

I was itching to just turn around and leave. Life was getting stupid again.

"I can't work with her." I said. "I can see it already."

"No one asked you what you CAN do, Sasuke. You WILL do it. This is a mission." Kakashi said.

Satomi smirked at me and put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, man up! Big boy." She said.

I couldn't help it. I involuntarily activated my Sharingan and then took a step forward. The Third Hokage stood up. Kakashi put a hand on my shoulder and Itachi, still behind the mask, put an arm across the girl's front.

"Sasuke." Itachi said in the eerily silent room. "Calm. Down."

I shook my head and deactivated it. I couldn't help it. Sometimes it just came on like that.

"Why don't you take a break, Sasuke?" the third hokage said.

Suddenly, I was being treated like a child. But honestly, I was glad for an excuse to leave. I left the room calmly but as soon as I got into the hallway I punched the wall.

"You idiot." I muttered. "It's all because you're taking too long to come back… Now this stupid girl is here and she's going to mess everything up."

It was obvious. My real strength was blocked my Naruto's absence in my life. And seeing some Satomi girl shove her way into his old position only made me feel like…maybe…he was never coming back. I just wanted to say "screw this" and quit being a ninja and find some trade to do. But that was impossible. I was an Uchiha. I shuddered to think of the kind of shame I'd bring to my clan.

_This is gonna suck… But I'm going to have to deal with this._

*The Rain Village*

We left for our mission immediately. It would be my first long term mission so Mom gave me an extra kiss and Dad gave me an extra nod. Somehow, I was glad to be leaving them. I was ready to go do adult things. Parents were annoying…but nowhere near as annoying as girls.

For the first time in my life, I was having an actual "girl problem". I honestly couldn't figure her out. The entire way there, she acted like an ass, so I acted like an ass. Then when we FINALLY, got to the rain village, I decided to be nice…but she STILL acted like an ass. So, then I decided to just ignore her. Hinata wasn't that complicated at ALL. She hardly ever talked and when she did, she was quiet and she listened to what I had to say and she was just all around pleasant. But this girl…was just downright unruly. Why were some girls different than others? I didn't get it at all… And I didn't WANT to get it. But she HAD to be a part of the team. Kakashi explained it to me in confidence.

"She's our ace in the hole in this mission, Sasuke." He said. "Along with the fact that she has the Sharingan, she's so adept at copying ninjutsu that she's key in infiltration. She's even better than me at copy ninjutsu. She can actually turn herself into a full clone of another person just by touching them and that's not all, she acquires all the jutsu and memory and knowledge of that specific person. It's like she does a screen-shot of their brains."

I rolled my eyes at the time and shrugged.

"Great, give her a cookie."

She only used it to annoy me. She'd constantly find it funny to turn into me and exaggeratedly do things.

"Ugh… When are we going to leave? This is boring… Ugh… My name is Sasuke and I have no patience and I think I'm so cool because I'm an Uchiha… Ugh… I hate girls."

Hinata tried not to laugh but failed.

"Ugh… I think I'm so complex and hard to figure out because I don't say much but I'm really just an asshole…"

I could sense Kakashi smiling under his mask.

"Ugh… I just wish Naruto could come back so I'd at least have ONE friend… Gosh..."

"Shut-Up!" I said, finally snapping.

"Struck a nerve?" she asked. "Man, I really wish I met this Naruto kid. I'd copy him in a second just to mess with you."

If there was anything in the WORLD, I was grateful for, it was that this obnoxious girl had never met Naruto.

The actual interrogation was taking FOREVER though. We talked to multiple rain village members. They were so woe-fully misguided that one person would say that they thought the person who led the rain village was a man and the other would say that it was really a woman and both would believe they were telling the truth. Interrogation was getting us nowhere. Satomi wasn't of use because there were no suspects. I was beginning to feel like it was all just a bogus mission.

But then…one day… I spotted something I wished I'd never seen…

*The Promise*

"I'm not…giving up…"

"Sasuke, I think…maybe…you've practiced enough." Hinata said in that soft voice of hers.

"Chidori!" I screamed, running full speed into a rocky overhand and sticking my hand into it.

We were both drenched. The rain never stopped but we'd already been living in the Inn's there for three months so we were more than accustomed to it.

"You…can go in…if you want." I said, shaking the weariness out of my right hand. "But I'm not letting her run her stupid mouth about my abilities anymore."

"Awww, so you're doing all this for little ol' me?" said a voice that definitely wasn't Hinata's.

I turned around and then sighed exaggeratedly. Of course, it wasn't Hinata. It was Satomi the entire time. It was ALWAYS her.

"Go away." I muttered.

"Why don't you just quit while you're ahead?" she asked. "Like you always do."

"Shut-up!"

_I'll show her… _

I thrust my hand between my legs and gathered chakra. The usual "chi-chi" sound pierced the humid air. I shook my wet hair off my forehead and darted for the rock. My hand dove straight through it and out of the back. I was so startled, I flew through the hole I made in the rock and rolled a couple of feet on the other side.

I sat up and my mouth dropped open. That hole was almost bigger than Kakashi's.

Satomi whistled as she walked over to me.

"That rock's about ten feet thick and fifteen feet wide." She said, shielding her eyes from the rain as she looked on. "Only slightly impressive."

Instead of getting to my feet I let myself slide onto my back and look at the cloudy sky. Rain splattered over my face. The longer I looked, the longer I imagined the clouds taking the shape of Naruto's face.

"When are you coming back…dobe?" I whispered. "I have something to show you now."

Satomi bent over me and leaned into my face.

"What are you talking about?"

I lifted my hand and pushed her head out of my line of view.

"Why don't you ever go pick on Hinata?"

She smirked at me.

"Because she's not a loser."

"'Tch."

She grabbed my hand and tugged on me.

"Come on, let's go back to the Inn." She told me. "It's getting late."

I let her get me to my feet and she eased my arm, the one that was still weak and in pain from using the Chidori twice, over her shoulders to help me walk.

"I don't need your help."

"Okay, you've proven that you're at least slightly adept at ninjutsu, so stop being an ass." She said.

I opted to just let her help me because I assumed that she would be less annoying that way. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man in a black cape walking swiftly down the mountain side. We were standing next to a mountain a couple of miles outside the Rain Village. The man seemed to be coming from the top of the mountain, that wouldn't have been so strange, because I knew that there were some houses up there. I would've just looked away if I hadn't seen red marks on his cloak. I looked again, this time snapping my Sharingan on and kneeling down behind the piece of rock that I had shattered to pieces.

"What are you doing?"

I pulled Satomi down next to me and peeked up through the hole in the room. I glanced again and was shocked to see that there were actually two men in cloaks. They paused right in front of the rock.

"I guess Pain and Konan moved on. Hm." Said one of them.

When I squinted harder, I could see that he had blonde hair under the hat he wore.

"This is a waste of time. I hate wasting time." The other one said.

He was shorter. They both pulled the hats off of their head and tossed them to the ground. I didn't recognize their faces…but their cloaks… They wore black cloaks with red cloud symbols all over them.

"Akatsuki." I mouthed to Satomi.

She nodded vigorously and we both looked on.

"Well, to save time, why don't you stick around in the Rain Village to see if they might come back soon, hm?" the blonde haired one said.

"That's just like wasting time."

"Well, what do you want me to do? Hidan and Kakuzu are in the sand village, Kisame and Tobi are in the cloud village, Orochimaru and Kabuto are in the Leaf Village and we're supposed to be hiding out in the hidden mist village but it's impossible to get into there… Now we've come to report the difficulty of getting into that village undercover and Konan and Pain aren't even at their posts!"

I was soaking in all the information.

_Orochimaru and Kabuto are in the Leaf Village… Orochimaru and Kabuto… Who were those people? Undercover?! This is…!_

"Like I said…waste of time." The red haired one said.

They had very different personalities. The red haired one seemed uptight and showed no emotion on his face…almost like he wasn't made of meat. And the blonde haired one was extremely emotional, complaining and whining like…me.

_Could he really be an Akatsuki member?_

He did a couple of hand signs and produced a spider shaped piece of clay in his hand. It was then that I realized that he had tongues in his hand. Satomi and I both made a disgusted face at the same time.

"Fine." The red haired one finally said. "We'll go by your plan. I will go back to the Mist village and try to infiltrate. You head back to the outskirts of the rain village and wait for the leaders."

"Good, you're listening- wait, what?! That wasn't my plan! I said YOU would wait in the rain village. Hm."

"Beggers can't be choosers." The red haired man said, walking on.

"But…I'm not even a beggar."

Suddenly, Satomi stood up and took her belt off.

"What are you…?"

"Shh!" she said, putting a finger to my lips. And then a quickly as she had done that, she pulled herself through the gap in the rock and snuck over to the akatsuki members. She ran up behind them and touched them both firmly on the back.

"Mister!" she said.

They both turned around.

"I saw…bears!" she said. "Please! I'm scared!"

_What the hell is she…oh, wait…_

With my Sharingan, I could see as she touched them…she was pooling the chakra in her hands. Sucking in their chakra and copying their signatures.

"Run along, kid." The blonde haired one said. "We can't help you. Hm."

"But-"

The red haired one turned and back-handed her without a second pause.

"You're wasting our time." He said.

Satomi fell to the dirt. I balled my fist.

Assholes…

They walked on and we both waited until they were out of sight to move. I jumped out of the bushes behind the rock and ran over to her.

"Here." I said, handing her the red belt.

As she put it on, I realized why she'd taken it off. Her leaf ninja plate was stitched to it. She wanted to look like a neutral villager.

"Did you get it?" I asked.

"Yup." She said wiggling her fingers. "Both of them."

I nodded, plan sowing itself together in my head.

"This is perfect." I said. "That red haired one seemed to be stronger because he was calling the shots…and he left. The blonde haired one is all alone by the gate to the rain village."

She raised her eyebrows as she used chakra to heal the gash on her face.

"Are you saying what I think you are?"

"Of course I am. We can take him down ourselves."

She laughed.

"Yeah, right." She said. "I probably could, but not you."

"Whatever." I shoved my hands into my pockets and walked on. "Are you coming or not?"

She put her hands on her hips in that indignant way she usually did things.

"Of course I am." I said. "But not without a plan."

"Easy. He's gone…so you'll appear as him, distract him, and I'll Chidori him through the back while he's not paying attention."

"What if he catches you?"

"He won't." I said. "I'm fast with the Chidori."

"We're going to need Hinata." She said. "Her Byakugan can locate him and any other enemies quicker than we'd see them."

"Great idea." I said. "Get Hinata but don't tell Kakashi."

"Why not?"

"Are you stupid? Imagine a couple of chunin like us taking down an AKATSUKI member alone. We'd probably be promoted to the special chunin forces. We don't need Kakashi for this."

She shrugged and ran off into the trees.

_Just watch, Naruto. You're going to be shocked out of your mind when you come back…_

*Attack the Akatsuki!*

You know how you plan something your head so many times that it feels like the truth? Like…nothing else except your plan could possibly happen?

I'll admit it. I was cocky. I should've taken the information about the Akatsuki straight to Kakashi so that he could send it back to Konoha. The village was what was important. If there were Akatsuki members staking out at the village then the most important thing to do would be to save the villagers…the civilians… This was the purpose of a ninja. But…I was only concerned about my own glory.

When Satomi and Hinata got back, we immediately set out for him. The Third Hokage was completely correct about us being the best tracking team because we found him in seconds. He was milling around a landfill near the gate to the Rain Village. It was a perfect place for a fight…or for someone's immediate death. Hinata and I hid behind a rock while Satomi went down alone disguised as the red haired Akatsuki member.

"Here's the plan, Hinata." I said, keeping my eyes on Satomi. "I'm going to get him with my Chidori as soon as Satomi gets him off of his guard."

She nodded.

"You're not too good with your gentle fist yet, so stay here…wait for my signal before anything."

"Right." She said.

Everything seemed to be working fine. Satomi disguised herself as the akatsuki member she said was named Sasori and spoke to the one she said was named Deidara. Deidara spoke animatedly like before.

"You're so concerned about wasting time, yet you're here!"

"I thought about it. Perhaps _you_ should go to the mist village."

"Since when did you become so finicky? Hm."

_Crap…he's going to find her out soon… Have to get down there._

Like when I practiced, I activated my Chidori and thrust my hand down. The sparks rippled through my arm. My feet were moving before I even realized it and, in seconds, I was behind him, arm raised, ready to strike but then…

My Chidori suddenly fizzed out.

"What the hell?!"

Deidara turned around, eyes flicking from me to Satomi. Satomi, realizing the plan failed, quickly morphed into Deidara. His eyes almost popped out of his head.

"I can't believe I was fooled by an imposter! Hm!" he said. "This might be fun!"

Satomi produced a clay snake in her hand and launched it at him. I performed the seals; snake, ram, monkey, bore, horse, tiger.

"Fire ball jutsu!" I shouted.

A wave of flames washed over him as clay snakes circled his feet and exploded around him. He jumped up into the air avoiding both attacks but I had for-seen this movement. I was already above him.

"Up here!"

He looked up as I bent my leg trying to plant my knee into his face. He pushed my leg out of the way with his right arm. I turned in the air and grabbed his head, spinning to plant my right foot in the back of his head. He fell to the ground, creating a big cloud of smoke, and I got down onto my feet with ease.

"This guy isn't anything." I muttered.

"Oh really!?"

I jumped as he appeared behind me.

_Fast!_

I swung one arm at him, but he caught me, another, but he caught that too. I slid toward him and used my foot to kick his leg forward, he stumbled and I used the spare moment to slide my thin wire around him. I jumped back a couple of feet and pulled the string forward. He flew toward me and I blew flames from my mouth watching as they traveled up the wire right toward him. He planted his feet in the dirt and grinned.

"I think you should look down."

I glanced at the ground to see clay spiders trying to hop up onto me. I dodged out of the way and he slipped out of the thin wire.

"You're alright for a kid." He said. "Too bad you're going to have to die."

"If anyone's dying here, it's you." I retorted.

"Hm? What's that on your back?"

I froze.

"My…back?"

I glanced behind me to see a giant clay spider attached to me. I grabbed at it but then remembered…they…explode.

"Hm. You see now, don't you?"

I looked up at him with tense eyes.

"If you force it off, it'll explode. If you jostle it too much, it'll explode, too. And even worse, it's not just sitting there. It's sucking up your chakra like a leech. Hm."

"You bastard."

He laughed cruelly.

"That's what happens when children try to play a grown man's game."

"Why don't you stop flapping your gums over there and pay attention?!"

He whirled around to see Satomi launching swift clay birds at him. They dove into him and detonated. He dove above it and turned to her angrily.

"And you! I have a special kind of death for you!" he yelled. "Stealing my art like that! My precious art! You don't even use it right, you thief! Hm."

Satomi ignored him and kept launching bombs. It became a bomb fight. With large red and orange lights expanding in the wet, humid air. The rain seemed to pour harder. I curled my back, afraid it would jostle the bomb.

_Is this…really it?_

Satomi was working her ass off. They were evenly matched though because they were basically the same person.

_Am I…really going to die?_

I could feel my chakra seeping away. I was…getting weaker. It was taking most of my energy just to keep my Sharingan on.

"Sasuke." Said a voice.

I turned to see Hinata running up next to me.

"This…clay." She said. "It's taking your chakra, I can see it."

"I know."

"We have to get it off!"

My legs trembled and I fell to my knees in the muddy puddles.

"You can't give up, Sasuke!" Hinata said.

"I'm…way too weak the way I am now." I said. "We…need to retreat."

Hinata shook her head.

"No." she said.

I looked up, completely surprised.

"Naruto would never run away." She said. "Because…standing up for yourself and being strong is his ninja way. It's…our ninja way."

I stared at her.

"And weren't you the one who said that your only goal would be protecting the ones you care about?"

My mind flashed back to our first day as ninja, sitting on the steps, telling Kakashi about ourselves.

Naruto wanted to surpass his father, the fourth Hokage. And I just wanted to protect my family.

_How could I have forgotten? I…also had a purpose in life._

"I'll save you, Sasuke." She said. "If I can block his chakra pathways, we can capture him and force him to let you go."

With that, she sped up to Satomi and began throwing her gentle fist punches at Deidara. Satomi threw a clay rabbit down that bounded into the air on his right forcing him to jump left, right into Hinata's path. Her fingers dug into his arm causing it to go limp.

"What did you do!?" he exclaimed.

He held his limp arm angrily.

"You stupid brats!"

He raised his single arm into the air and produced a gigantic clay monster bird.

"I'll kill you all with this. Hm!"

Satomi hurried to produce the same bird that he did.

"Try it! We'll all die here together!" Satomi threatened.

I spotted Hinata getting ready to sprint…toward Deidara. The events planned themselves out in front of my minds eye.

Hinata would run…and Deidara would turn his giant bird on her. Even if Satomi turned her bird on him, Hinata would be killed. But…if I could get to him first…

I was already running. I had no chakra…but I pushed it out. If I died of chakra exhaustion it would be far better than dying by explosion. I had already accepted my eminent death. I just needed to save the girls…save them from my idiotic leadership.

The lightning was rippling through my hand. My feet began moving quicker. I chalked it up to my hurriedness to get there. I jumped over him and cocked my hand back. He turned at the last moment, saw me and launched the bird at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hinata get to him and hit his arm, it fell limp. By sheer accident, I pulled my hand back, trying to avoid chidori'ing the explosive out of fear of detonating it and touched my own chest with the lightning style attack. I saw the explosion consume me and knew that it would be enough to jostle bomb on my back and kill me. I was certain I was dead.

But then…

*True Despair*

I felt the rain before my eyes opened, sliding down my lips, hair, face…

_Am I…alive?_

My ears were ringing. Someone's hands were on my chest. My entire body ached.

"Sasuke!" Satomi exclaimed, pulling her hands back. "You're alive!"

I sat up slowly putting my head in my hands. Her hands had green chakra surrounding them. I recognized it as a healer's chakra signature. I didn't know she could heal.

"What happened?" I finally dared to ask.

I looked around to see Kakashi with his hands in his pockets standing next to Deidara's motionless body.

"Seriously…what the hell happened?!"

"I thought you were dead when that explosion happened." She said. "It blew everyone away, even me, and I was further away from the blast than you two…luckily, Kakashi sensed something was wrong and he came. He completed the Chidori attack that you missed."

_I see… So Kakashi came…cleaning up my sloppy errors._

"Where's Hin-"

As soon as the words came from my mouth, my eyes glimpsed a body lying to my right. I turned to her, ignoring the searing pain in my body. I pressed my hand to her arm.

"Hinata…"

"I'm sorry, Sasuke." She whispered.

"Why didn't you save her?" I asked.

"After fighting so hard with Deidara, I only had enough chakra to heal one person."

My eyes locked onto her.

"Then why didn't you choose HER!?" I asked.

Her bottom lip trembled. I'd never seen her so flustered but I didn't care. I was furious. I knelt over her. She had been bleeding profusely. Her entire jacket was soaked with blood.

_This can't be happening…_

"You should've chosen _her_!" I shouted.

"I couldn't!"

"Why not!"

"Because…" she began, glaring at me fiercely. "I…love you…I couldn't just let you…"

I couldn't tell if she was crying or if it was just the rain but her shoulders began to shake.

"You asshole!" she shouted. "It's not like I thought about it or anything! I just…seeing you lying there… I immediately went to you. It was out of my control."

"You don't understand." I finally said. "He gave me…one request…just one…and now…dammit…now…"

The last words Naruto mouthed rang out in my head every day since he left. Some days I listened and remembered, most days I didn't. But it didn't exclude the fact that he'd said them.

"_Protect Hinata."_

Two words…two words that meant everything.

"No…" I cried out to the rain. "No!"

How the hell am I going to face him now?

"Dammit!"

My haste to be recognized, my ridiculous ego, my childish ignorance…all of it clouded my judgment and destroyed the ONE task I was given.

"Hinata's…she's…she's important to him!"

"What are you talking about?" Satomi asked.

"Naruto! My brother! She's like…his…his…and all he told me to do was protect her…and I can't even do that right! I'm so worthless."

_How the hell can I face him…without her standing next to me?_

Kakashi began walking toward us.

"He's dead." Kakashi said. "Good work team."

I didn't move. My head was in my hands I stared at the ground.

_This can't be happening..._

"If we get her back to the rain village…" Kakashi said. "…There may be a way to save her."

My head snapped up.

"Anything." I said. "Whatever we can do, let's do it."

I lifted Hinata onto my back. He carried the corpse of Deidara and we all retreated.

We got back to the village quickly and met some woman named Tsunade who was known as the best medical ninja around. She was in the rain village by pure chance but Kakshi had been speaking to her about the war when we ran away to fight Deidara. She took Hinata from me and reluctantly decided to extend a helping hand after I threatened to kill her if she didn't.

"Pretty head-strong, aren't you?" she asked me.

I said nothing but began producing a Chidori.

"Alright, alright, calm down." She said. "Shizune…get permission from this Inn to use one of their rooms as a medical center."

When they left, Satomi, Kakashi and I sat outside of the room. I was pacing. I couldn't help it.

"Sasuke, you do realize that if it wasn't for your lightning style, you would've been killed."

I didn't care about that. All I cared about was Hinata…getting her life back…that was all…

"He was an earth user. If you had stopped to notice that, you would've realized that you could've deactivated the clay bomb on your back by using a Chidori and gotten him with a sneak attack. I explained all of this to you when I taught you the attack."

_But I'm a slacker so I didn't hear it…right? _

Suddenly, something occurred to me.

"So…when I touched myself with my own Chidori, I basically saved myself?"

"Yes." He said. "You deactivated the bomb on your back and shielded yourself from the explosion simultaneously by using the Chidori. Even if it was just a mistake."

He turned to me.

"That attack he sent at you damaged him, too. Even if I hadn't come, he would've died from the damage…so you still defeated him. However…"

He stood up and blocked my path.

"Now do you understand why ninja cannot act like children?"

I looked down.

"I understand."

He put his hand on my shoulder.

"Nice eyes, by the way."

I looked up at him in confusion.

"I noticed that too." Satomi said, standing up from the bench. "You've reached the third level."

I thought back to the battle and nodded. It probably happened when I thought Hinata had died.

Suddenly, she activated her Sharingan and I saw that she had three todems.

"You're just as strong as I am."

I was nowhere near as excited as I was when I first unlocked my Sharingan in the chunin exam final against Naruto. Something inside of me changed. I deactivated my Sharingan and began pacing again.

*Jounin*

Tsunade truly was a genius. I hadn't felt a heartbeat from Hinata as I carried her back to the Inn but somehow, she was able to resuscitate her. The first thing she did when we came into the room was smile at me.

"We did it." She said, happily.

I walked over to her and said nothing. But I didn't leave the room, I watched over her as she slept. There was no way… No way… I was going to risk her life again.

"Naruto would be proud of us." She said.

I said nothing. I severely doubted he'd be proud of any decision I had made that day. We got back to the Hidden Leaf village safely, bringing Tsunade and Deidara's corpse with us. We all stood in front of the Third Hokage. I allowed Satomi to tell the Third Hokage everything about the information we'd heard. She began stuttering at the part where I decided to go after the Akatsuki member on my own. It was obvious she didn't want me to look bad. I didn't care. I opened my mouth, ready to own up to my mistake…a mistake that almost killed my comrade. But Kakashi cut me off.

"They returned to the Inn and notified Hinata and I about the enemy. I hung back with Tsunade and Sasuke's team went to detain the enemy. Sasuke led his team efficiently and they succeeded in permanently detaining the enemy without me."

_Kakashi…why are you lying?_

"Really?" The Third Hokage said, eyebrows rising. "I hope this means you won't be wreaking havoc on this village with my grandson anymore now that you're defeating Akatsuki members."

I said nothing. He smiled at me.

"Team…Sasuke." He said. "I'm awarding you all badges of honor, intellect and strength. And as for you, Captain Sasuke."

_Captain Sasuke?_

"I'm promoting you to Jounin."

"As I said before, we're running low on Jounin so I must respect leadership when I see it. Great job." He said. "I'm afraid that this war might be commencing quicker than expected. Please spend much of your spare time in preparation. Practice, get better, and overall, solidify your relationships…you never know when you'll get a second chance."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." I said.

"And as for these infiltrates, Orochimaru and Kabuto…" he said. "I know of Orochimaru. He used to be a student of mine, along with Tsunade and Jiraiya."

_Jiraiya?_

"I actually very recently met Jiraiya in some of the grasslands around the land of iron. We had a pretty annoying run in with Orochimaru and his subjugate over there."

"Speaking of Jiraiya, did he complete his escort mission?"

"Escort mission?" Tsunade asked.

The Third Hokage nodded and interlocked his fingers.

"I sent him on a mission about a year ago to escort a boy named Uzumaki Naruto to the Jinchuriki Summit. Was the mission a success?"

My ears perked up. For the first time in a LONG time, I was truly listening.

A sudden look of understanding washed over her face.

"I see..." she said. "So, that boy was special afterall? I had a feeling he wasn't just Jiraiya's god-son."

She cocked her head.

"Yes. Orochimaru and his subjugate were trying to abduct Naruto. It seems to me that this Akatsuki organization might be seeking out all the tailed beast carriers for some reason. I accompanied Jiraiya and Naruto all the way to the summit and saw him get dropped off. He's safe."

I exhaled deeply.

_Great...at least he's safe... But why does the Akatsuki want Naruto and the other Jinchurki?_

The Third Hokage didn't look surprised at all.

"We expected that to happen..." he said. "When the leader of the Akatsuki appeared to us and claimed that he wanted to start a war unless we gave up our tailed beasts, we immediately went into action. That's why we created the Jinchuriki summit. So that all the tailed beasts would be in a safe place...together."

_What? I thought the summit was for them to learn to control their powers! Not to just be sitting around clumped up together like livestock._

"But isn't it a bad idea to have them all together?" asked Kakashi, voicing my thoughts. "It makes it a one-stop mission for the Akatsuki."

"But don't be alarmed, the longer those kids stay there, the stronger they will become." He said mysteriously.

"Well, Jiraiya was surprised to find out that the Akatsuki lives on." Tsunade said. "He had been sure that he killed the leader so, after he dropped the kid off, he went on a solo mission to get more information. You should be receiving letters from him soon."

She suddenly smiled at a fond memory.

"Naruto is a pretty...admirable kid." She glanced at me. "He wears the same symbol on his back that you two do."

A feeling of peace washed over me.

_He's really still out there... Still alright... And still wearing the Uchiha Crest on his clothes..._

Tsunade turned back to the Third Hokage.

"If Orochimaru is really in this village, things could already be in motion…with that awful snake, you never know." Tsunade spoke up.

"Right. Let's just keep this information between us. If the general ninja population were informed, he might take the offensive position. Let's pretend like we are unaware and sniff them out silently. You are dismissed."

*Brotherly Time*

"Why are you so blah?" Satomi asked. "You just found out that Naruto's fine! And on top of that, you're a jounin now, be excited!"

I didn't respond to her. Satomi, Kakashi and I were sitting on the back deck of my house. As soon as the meeting was over, I went home. Later Kakashi and Satomi showed up to see how I was doing. Hinata was still recovering and was at home so she couldn't come. I was lying on my back with my hands behind my head. Kakashi sat down and leaned up against the wooden post with his face in his book and Satomi lay on her stomach with her palms propping her chin up and her feet kicking in the air on my other side.

"Sasuke's become a man." Kakashi said. "Sometimes, it takes something really tragic to happen to push some people into maturity."

"This guy? A man? Yeah, right." She said, poking me with her finger. "He still has a baby face."

I looked over at Kakashi, whose face was still in his book, and sat up.

"Why did you lie?"

"I didn't lie. I told you that Deidara would've died even if I hadn't gotten there. It was because you came up behind him with the Chidori throwing him off guard that Hinata was able to destroy his other arm and he detonated himself. And then when he detonated himself, the Chidori shield you created caused the attack to backlash onto him. It was your kill. I gave you credit."

"I didn't tell you about it. I ran straight into danger, trying to kill an S-rank criminal and almost killed a comrade. It was luck that we won. Nothing more and nothing less. And it was all because I wanted to look cool."

"Well, luck is nothing to be ashamed of. And it wasn't all for nothing." He said. "You realized your error and you've grown from the experience."

He closed his book, stood up and then suddenly smiled fondly.

"You know, I was just as dangerously spontaneous when I was a child, too. Life is for learning."

He waved to us and then disappeared in his usual fashion. Satomi sat up next to me.

"Feel like sparing?" she asked. "I wouldn't mind going a couple of rounds with you now that you're worthy, Mr. Jounin."

I glanced at her and said nothing.

"You know, just because you made a mistake, doesn't mean it's all over. Just relax."

My memory flashed to a moment I hadn't let into my mind in a long time.

"_Because, I…love you…I couldn't just let you…"_

It was sunset. A shadow was easing itself over us. As soon as I decided on what I wanted to say, I became uncharacteristically flustered.

"Uh…thank you, for saving me, Satomi." I said. "I'm sorry that…I yelled and everything, I was just panicking."

She smiled at me and put her hand over mine.

"You're welcome…big guy." She whispered.

Her face was incredibly close to mine. She seemed to be leaning closer. I felt my face grown warm. Her short hair which used to be cut short and shaggy like a boy's had grown out and reached her shoulders. She pulled the dark brown hair into a ponytail that usually hung over her shoulder. Her black eyes pierced into mine. I surprised even myself when I breached the rest of the distance and pressed my lips to hers. I felt a strange tingling sensation spreading through my body. She didn't pull away and hit me or stop me like I expected her to. Instead…she kissed me back. I caught a scent on her I'd never noticed before.

_It's like…cinnamon and apples._

Another memory became apparent to me.

"_She's so annoying! I just can't understand her! I hate her!" I complained._

"_Some girls are like that. She's probably just mean to you because she wants your attention."_

"_Why would she want my attention?"_

"_Because she likes you." Kakashi said. "Some girls are backwards like that."_

"_There's no way that's possible… She just likes making my life awful."_

How the heck was I supposed to know Kakashi was telling the truth?

"Sasuke?" said a voice.

I pulled away from her and we both turned around, eyes wide like deer caught next to a paper bomb.

"Oh, I'm sorry… I didn't know you had a guest over."

"No, I was just leaving, Itachi-san." She said. "I'll see you later, Sasuke."

I watched as she ran away, for the first time realizing the fullness of her-

"So, I hear you made Jounin."

"Uh…yeah." I said slowly coming back to earth.

"The Third Hokage just told me the information that you guys gave him." Itachi said. "And he's given me and most of the other ANBU a serious mission."

"What kind of mission?" I asked.

"A seek and destroy mission." He said. "We and a couple of others from other villages will be sent to help seek out the remaining Akatsuki members and do everything in our power to destroy them."

"I see." I said.

"I asked him if I could bring you along…and he said I could."

He'd finally caught my attention.

"Another S-rank mission!?"

"Well, you did so well with that last one I felt that you should have another shot."

I bowed my head…I couldn't lie to my brother. The truth came out, all of it, from beginning to end.

"And now I've got what I wanted. I'm a jounin like I wanted… But I don't deserve it."

He nodded.

"It's understandable that you feel guilty… But instead of moping about it, just take this new mission as a new chance to earn your title. You are a Jounin, Sasuke. You can prove it to yourself."

I nodded eagerly. Those words of encouragement… He always had them for me.

"But this is your only chance to do that. Will you come…or not?"

"I'm coming." I said.

At dinner that night, Itachi told our parents that I was promoted to Jounin and awarded another S-Rank mission with him that we'd be leaving to complete the next day. I don't think my father ever smiled at me as much as he had that night. And my mother was all over me, hugging me and giving me second helpings of my favorite dinner.

That night, I went to my room. The room I hadn't seen in almost four months. My eyes settled upon that bed, that same bed, with the leaf symbols all over it. My fingers grazed the sheets.

"I'm leaving the village now, too." I whispered.

The room was silent. I heard owls whooing outside.

"I think, finally, I'm gaining control of my life… Instead of just waiting for you to come back, I'm going to be busy atoning for my mistakes by trying to truly earn my Jounin title."

I sighed and looked around the rest of the room. I looked at pictures I'd hardly ever looked at. One of the first day we became Team 7 with Naruto crossing his eyes and sticking his tongue out at the camera and putting a peace-sign above Hinata's head, Hinata smiling softly at the camera and me grinning at Naruto's funny antics with my hands up behind my head. Then one when Naruto and I were younger probably taken by Itachi. Mikoto carried me on her hip at hugged Naruto to her leg, smiling happily at the camera. I was kicking at Naruto's head and he was tugging on my leg. In another picture, we were both rolling around in the mud outside after it had rained heavily. We were perpetually messing with each other, bugging each other… Consistently next to each other… Like true brothers.

I couldn't help but smile. I guess, even if I won't be here physically waiting for him, I'll always be waiting for him anyway.

The next morning, Satomi came to my house.

"What? You're leaving again?"

I nodded. Itachi put his hand on my shoulder.

"Hopefully, we'll be back soon."

"I should come, too. I can be your greatest asset."

"I'm sorry, Satomi. This is brotherly time." Itachi said.

I couldn't help but snicker at hearing him say something so out of character.

"Brotherly time? Really?"

Satomi shrugged.

"Fine. I guess I'll just see you in a couple months then."

I nodded at her. We all just stood there quietly for a while. I nudged Itachi discretely.

"I'll double check that we have everything." Itachi said suddenly.

As soon as he was gone, Satomi dashed over to me and threw her arms around me.

"You're really reckless." She told me. "Don't do anything stupid."

"I won't."

She pulled a necklace from around her neck and put it around my neck. I looked down.

"The Uchiha crest?"

"My mother gave it to me…before she died from the same disease I used to have. I want you to take it. Happy Fifteenth Birthday."

I rolled my eyes. My birthday wasn't for another month…but she probably wouldn't be there to see me on it.

"Thank you." I said.

She was still hugging me. She pulled away from me just enough for me to see her face. I stared at her, enjoying the view of her olive skin and round pink lips. She kissed me. I lost myself in a world of apples and cinnamon and her lips and hair and…

"Sasuke!"

"Huh?"

"So, is she your girlfriend?" Itachi asked me.

We'd already walked at least ten miles away from the village.

"What? No. Of course not."

Itachi laughed.

"Yeah, right." He said.

I felt something cold against my chest and remembered the necklace she'd given me. A smile crept onto my face. A smile that didn't leave for a while.

"So…where are we going first?" I asked.

"The first thing we're going to do is train." Itachi said. "You might be skilled at Taijutsu and Ninjutus but your genjutsu is average at best… And sadly, your Kekkei Genkai revolves around genjutsu prowess."

"So, you're going to teach me?"

"Of course."

{PART 2} (What Naruto was doing all that time...)

Naruto

*Learning the Rasengan*

At first, it seemed like it was going to be nothing but fun.

"Ero-Senin, Ero-Senin! Can I learn the Rasengan now?!"

He took me through three steps. Popping a water balloon, popping a regular balloon and then creating the jutsu from scratch. We ran into a woman named Tsunade there. She was a gambler who lost every match and only cared about making bets so she could lose more and more money. She made a bet with me...told me that she'd give me her necklace, the first Hokage's necklace, if I learned my father's prized Jutsu, the Rasengan.

I took her up on it but...didn't win the bet. She appreciated my effort and seemed to become happy again. She accompanied Ero-Senin and I to the Land of Iron to get to the Jinchuriki Summit but on our way there, Orochimaru intercepted us with this guy named Kabuto.

They all fought. Shizune protected me from Kabuto while Orochimaru fought Ero-Senin and Tsunade. It became clear to me very quickly that their target was...me.

"Naruto, get out of here!" Tsunade yelled.

She had a problem with blood. She started shaking and couldn't move once she saw blood. Kabuto had gotten Shizune out of the way and permanently impaled her by cutting her arm muscles and restricting her chakra flow. She was bleeding. Tsunade couldn't move. I was trying to protect them both. I already tried using my wind techniques...like my wind slicer, the technique I created when I tried to do the fire ball jutsu against Haku without being a fire style. Kabuto dodged it all very easily.

"Kabuto, grab him quickly. If we can at least bring the nine tails back, we will still have an advantage."

He reached for me immediately.

"Alright, Naruto. I'm going to cut your chakra flow nice and easy." He said, pushing his glasses up. "Just relax and it'll be quick."

"Naruto, run!"

_Run? _

He reached for me again. I jumped back and stumbled. That moment of weakness almost killed me. He grabbed my collar and I felt my feet leave the ground.

"I got him!"

He smirked at Tsunade, who struggled to get to her feet despite the blood on her face, and pushed his glasses up.

"Idiot..." I muttered.

He looked up at me.

"You shouldn't...take your eyes off your opponent." I told him.

Behind my back, I had been concentrating on an attack, feeling my chakra out, swirling it around in my palm. I pulled my right hand around in front of me. A ball of white and blue swirled around in my hand.

"Rasengan!"

I shoved my hand into his chest. He let go of me and flew almost twenty feet away and deep into a rock on the other side of the field. Jiraiya was beaten back by an attack by Orochimaru at that point. Orochimaru slithered toward us and over to Kabuto. He helped Kabuto to his shaky feet. Tsunade got to her feet next to me and put her hand on my shoulder. It was a stare-off. Slowly, I held my palm out to them and produced another Rasengan, much more easily.

"Try me." I dared them.

"Don't think that...this is over." Orochimaru said, and then they both burst into flames and disappeared.

Grandma Tsunade put her hands on my shoulder and bent down so that she could look me in the eyes.

"I guess I should start calling you Hokage-sama, because you really fooled me." She said.

"Huh?"

"You learned the technique." She clarified.

I grinned and shrugged.

"Yeah...I guess I did!"

She pulled the crystal necklace from around her neck and placed it over my shoulders.

"You earned this." She told me.

She came with us all the rest of the way to the land of iron. I guess she wanted to make sure Orochimaru and Kabuto didn't come back for a sneak attack. But they didn't. Things were looking peaceful.

*Another Family*

"But...I hope there will come a day when ninjas can all truly understand each other." Jiraiya told me.

He had just finished telling me a story about how all the ninja nations were against each other. The first great ninja war, second, third and fourth. I was listening, but only half-heartedly. I was more concerned with seeing how many pieces I could cut my ramen noodles up into.

"But how can that happen, Ero-Senin?"

"I don't know yet." Jiraiya said. "But...perhaps, I can give this dilemma to you as my star pupil and you can inherit my will."

"Anything for you!" I said, excitedly.

Tsunade Oba-chan put her feet up on the table and lifted a cup of sake to her lips.

"That sounds like a botched inheritance. How are you going to give a kid a problem even YOU couldn't solve?" she asked.

"As you can see, Tsunade, Naruto isn't an ordinary kid. I believe in him."

Granny Tsunade put her cup on the table and looked at me. Her eyes lowered to my chest with the crystal necklace hanging in the center, and she reached over and ruffled my hair.

"Yeah." She said. "I believe in him, too."

That night, I slept between Ero-Senin and Tsunade in a large master bed at an Inn. Granny Tsunade pulled me into her chest like I was a teddy bear and Ero-Sennin lay facing us with his arms around us both. I wondered if that was what it would feel like to have a mother and father every night, all the time. But somehow, even though I greatly appreciated their existence in my life, I couldn't help but miss my first family.

The Uchiha Crest on my back burned hotly, claiming me. I had a real family somewhere, my first family. I had a big brother, Itachi, and a mother, Mikoto-san, and a father, Fugaku-san, and a boy I loved and understood more deeply than a twin brother. Every day I thought about them and wondered how they were doing without me, especially Sasuke.

But the next morning, we finally got to the Land of Iron and I realized that even Grandma Tsunade and Ero-Senin can't stay with me forever.

"Okay, this is it. This is the place." Ero-Senin said. "Are you ready?"

I pumped my fists into the air.

"Yeah!"

"Great." He said, putting a hand on my head. "Train hard, Naruto. I know that you can learn to control the nine tails."

Grandma Tsunade bent down and kissed my forehead.

"I know you won't disappoint us." She said.

It felt like a goodbye. I frowned.

"Aren't you...coming in with me?"

"No." Ero-Senin said. "It feels like the Akatsuki is still alive. I must get to the bottom of this and figure out what their goal is. Perhaps, we can stop them early before there are any casualties."

"I agree. I'm going to head to the Hidden Rain village." Tsunade said. "I've heard some rumors that the Akatsuki leader resides there."

I bent my head.

"But...I don't...want you to leave." I muttered, feeling embarrassed. "I..."

"Naruto." Ero-Senin said interrupting me. "How old are you now?"

"Fourteen." I said.

"Right, you're almost a man. Men take care of themselves. You should be able to do that now. I don't have to babysit you anymore." he told me.

"You're a man...aren't you Naruto?" Tsunade chimed in.

I nodded slowly. They said a couple more encouraging words to each other. Their relationship seemed to be deep. Something told me that maybe they loved each other. Like a trillion years ago... They were WAY too old now to feel that way about each other... Weren't they?

"Don't do anything stupid." Tsunade said, and she grabbed his hand.

"I have to say the same for you." Ero-Senin said. "And stay away from gambling."

She grinned. "Yeah...right..."

He brushed his hand through her hair. They smiled at each other fondly.

Or...maybe not...

We all walked separate directions.

I headed right up to the large, double-doors of an iron building with my hands clutching my back-pack straps nervously.

I looked around. Ero-Senin and Tsunade were only dots in the distance. I suddenly felt a strong bout of loneliness. It was completely silent. It was snowing. It was getting dark out. I knocked, ignoring my fearful feelings.

"Hello?" I called.

Slowly...the door creaked open. I rose onto the tips of my toes, peering inside.

*Jinchuriki Party*

Two men in iron suits with swords attached grabbed me and pulled me inside. The door closed behind us. It was pitch dark. They continued pulling me along, more like I was a trespasser than a visitor. Suddenly, my heart began to pound.

_What if Ero-Senin and Tsunade Oba-san left too early?! What if it's a trap?_

I tried to pull away but they were incredibly strong and kept my arms pinned behind my back. I concentrated on my right hand and again, I felt the chakra out, forced it to swirl and condense.

"Ahhh!" the first one screamed as I shoved my Rasengan hand into his side.

The other one let go of me in shock. I took the moment of surprise and ran away from them into the darkness, turning one corner and then another, and then another. I heard their angry voices behind me and their metallic feet clomping after me. I came to another large pair of double doors and shoved them open with as much power as I could but they didn't budge.

I have to get away... I have to get away...

I summoned another Rasengan, this time it was immediate. Like pulling a kunai knife out of my ninja pouch. I ran at the door with my Rasengan and blasted the door open. I skidded out into the center of the room because of the backlash of the blow and stumbled.

I looked around me, slowly. There were people sitting cross-leggedly in a meditation position all in a circle surrounding me.

"Uh...sorry to interrupt?" I said slowly.

The guards ran over and paused at the entrance to the door.

"My apologizes sir, he escaped from us."

A man with bandages on the top of his head wearing a samurai outfit came over to me.

"It's about time, we've been waiting all day for you." He said.

"Wait...is this the jinchuriki summit?" I asked.

"Of course. What did you think it was?"

I looked around again. My eyes locked on a boy with dark red hair and a sand gourd propped up next to him. He nodded at me. I turned back to the samurai man.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" I said. "Son of the Fourth Hokage, at your service!"

The man took my hand and shook it.

"My name is Mifune. I'm a samarui along with my men that you injured." He said.

"Super sorry! I thought you guys were the Akatsuki!" I said bashfully. "Just, uh...put that door on my tab."

The samurai cocked his head at me.

"You're a strange boy, aren't you?"

I grinned sheepishly.

"Well...take your designated seat next to the eight tails and the one tail."

He pointed to an empty spot on the ground between a buff looking dark skinned guy and Gaara. I quickly ran over and took my seat.

"That was awesome." Gaara mouthed to me.

I fist bumped him.

"Alright, now that everyone is here. We can begin...Killer Bee."

The guy next to me stood up and nodded.

"Yes?"

"You're the only tailed beast carrier so far who as learned full control over your beast. Explain to them how you learned it."

I looked around me. A couple of the Jinchuriki looked to be only about ten or twelve years old while others were grown men or women. Killer Bee looked to be older than me but not as old as a grown man...maybe in his early twenties. He shrugged.

"It's not...simple like that. My beast and I just got onto the same frequency."

"How did you do that?

"Well, the tailed beasts are made up of immense evil." He said. "More than is humanly possible to understand. But if your heart is pure and you're completely devoid of any hatred or evil then you may be able to tame your beast, I believe."

"Well, if it's purifying your heart, I can definitely help you all with that." Mifune said. "There is a purification process that all samurai have to go through before they are accepted. Perhaps if you all go through that, you will be able to face your beasts with a clean heart."

Killer Bee returned to his spot beside me and made a face.

"I'm trying to figure out why I have to be here even though I've already learned this." He said. "My brother is so annoying."

I snickered.

"Pay attention."

We all snapped to attention.

"You must open all your chakra pathways which are blocked by negative emotions and feelings."

*Eight Chakra Gates*

"The first chakra gate is the gate of Courage." Mifune explained.

I felt like I was in a school classroom. Everyone had their hands together and meditated. Their eyes were closed as they listened. Even Killer Bee was doing it, even though he didn't have to. I reluctantly resigned myself to deep breathing and listening.

"It's blocked by Cowardice. Think hard about what you're afraid of..."

Slowly, my mind showed me the nightmares I used to have as a child of the nine tails in my body trying to break down the seal it was trapped behind and eat me whole.

"Think of it...and be Courageous." He told us.

I opened my eyes but I was inside of my body. I looked into the huge red eyes and black lips. His roar was so loud I believed my eardrums split. His breath was blowing me backwards. I was so small compared to him. I fell into the knee high water surrounding me. I slowly raised my light blue eyes to his dark red ones...

"I'm...not afraid of you." I whispered.

He roared again, barring his teeth.

"I'm not afraid of you!" I shouted as loud as I could.

It felt like my shout was over-powering his roar and quickly, the only thing I heard was my own voice. I opened my eyes. Everyone around me seemed to of have the same kind of strange inner-body experience. Gaara glanced at me wearily. I patted him on the back.

"Congratulations." He said. "If you're not breaking into a cold sweat, you've opened your first chakra gate."

"Now the second chakra gate is the gate of Peace." He told us. "It's blocked by Guilt. What do you feel guilty about?"

My memory brought me back to the chunin exam finals, almost stabbing Sasuke...and then again at the dock, if Sasuke hadn't unlocked his Sharingan at that specific point, I would've killed him. And lastly, the day I left. I realized I felt immense guilt about leaving him all alone.

_I'm sorry, Sasuke... I'm sorry that I almost did that..._

"In order to unlock this gate, you must forgive yourself for whatever you have done. Guilt means that your trespass was unintentional. Accept that you are a human being. You make mistakes. Allow this truth to fill you."

_I promise to remain in control from now on. I know you forgive me. I forgive me, too, now._

I opened my eyes last that time. It seemed that everyone was quicker to forgive themselves than I was.

"Good, you've just unlocked your second gate. You now have inner peace."

I took a shaky breath.

"This isn't a joke." I muttered to Gaara.

He nodded in agreement.

"Okay, the third gate is the gate of Strength and is blocked by Shame." He told us. "What are you most shameful about?"

I knew this one as soon as he'd said it. Often times, I feared coming home and discovering that they'd all moved on and forgotten about me. Sasuke would have new friends, a new team. Mikoto-san and Fugaku-san wouldn't even remember my names. And Itachi wouldn't even spare me a second glance. I felt shameful because...I knew deep in my heart of hearts that it could never happen. I knew that they loved me but somehow, sometimes, I still had those dreams. I felt embarrassed for not trusting them.

"Gain the Strength to trust in yourself. Once you trust yourself, then you can trust others." Was all he said.

I opened my eyes. Gaara shrugged.

"There isn't much I feel shameful about." Killer Bee muttered on my other side.

"Congratulations, you have opened the third chakra gate. Now, you are Strong."

"Next is the fourth chakra gate, it is the gate of Love, present in your heart." He said. "Touch your hearts."

I lifted my right hand to the left part of my chest. I could feel it beating there.

"It is blocked by Grief." He said. "As ninjas, there are many people that have died in our lives. Many people we are grieving over. Think of whoever you feel grief for."

My mind flashed to the framed picture I carried with me everywhere. My father held my mother and she held her stomach which protruded far from her body. I was there. That protrusion was me. They were supposed to be here with me. They were supposed to have a life with me... But they... They...

"Whoever you are grieving over may have died. But love transcends the physical world. It is a form of spiritual, nature chakra that swirls around in us all. Love does not die. It is reborn anew in other people present in your life. Think of the new people around you who love you..."

Ero-Senin...and Grandma Tsunade... Mikoto-San and Fugaku-San... Itachi and Kakashi... All of their faces swirled around me. I remembered all encounters with them, protecting them, allowing them to protect me. And Sasuke... My brother. His love for me was stronger than all of those. And lastly, Hinata.

"Think of those new people...and that love you have for them...and let your attachments to the old people go. They still love you...but you must open your heart to new love."

I imagined the framed picture of my parents falling and falling...dropping into a sea, falling past the surface. I reached for it...but then retracted my hand. The more I retracted my hand, the more a new sound became present. That new sound...

"Naruto-kun! Naruto-kun!"

I turned around and was surprised to feel a girl dive head-long into my arms.

"Hinata..."

"Come on, they're waiting for us!"

Sasuke stood there grinning and beckoning to me and Kakashi was reading his book, like usual. Sasuke outstretched his hand to me. I took it. I didn't turn around and look at the sinking picture. I could keep that picture in my heart.

I opened my eyes and was shocked to feel that my face was wet, tears streamed down my cheeks. I glanced at Gaara to see that he had the same tears on his face. I wondered who had died in his life.

"Tears are normal." Mifune said. "They are necessary with any big internal change."

Most of us were crying. Maybe all jinchuriki's had to go through immense pain... Or maybe our pain was simply the plight of a ninja... Either way, I pulled my knees to my chest and surrounded myself with thoughts of Sasuke and Hinata. I pretended to hear encouraging words from them, pretended to feel their hugs and the warmth of their bodies.

"The next gate is the gate of Success and it is blocked by Doubt." He told us. "What do you feel doubtful about?"

This one was incredibly easy. I wasn't sure if I could really harness the nine tails power. I doubted that I could truly return to Konoha without being a threat.

"Nothing is impossible. You can do whatever you set your mind to. Believe that wholeheartedly."

I remembered how it felt to produce my first Rasengan one-handedly and blow Kabuto away while protecting Granny Tsunade at the same time.

_You're right... I can do anything... I'm...Naruto, son of the fourth Hokage. Anything is possible._

"Great job, you are now Successful."

Gaara's eyes were still closed tightly. I put my hand on his knee. He opened his eyes unsurely but I nodded at him. Slowly, he smiled at me.

"The next gate is the gate of Insight and is blocked by Illusion." He told us. "Think of the world and everything that is a part of it. Think about the separations, divisions and distinctions that humans created."

I visualized the five ninja nations. Right then, we were all from different villages, different clans, and different heritages. Some of us had blonde hair and others had red or black hair. We looked different, spoke different languages and thought differently...yet...we weren't that different at all, were we?

"_I believe there will come a day when humans can truly understand each other."_

I recalled the wars that we'd had in the past. Stone vs Mist, Leaf vs. Cloud and Sand. All kinds of pointless wars. Yet, here I was sitting next to a cloud ninja and a sand ninja and I cared for them like I cared for myself.

"Realize that...we are all one." Mifune stated.

The Uchiha crest burned hotly on my back and the necklace given to me from the First Hokage was cold on my chest. I am an Uchiha with Uzumaki descent...that alone spoke volumes to me. I opened my eyes easily.

_These distinctions by clan and village are just illusions... We are all...one._

Mifune's eyes gazed solely into mine.

"Congratulations." He told me. "You have now gained Insight."

"The seventh gate is the gate of Self-Worth and it is blocked by Jealousy." He told us.

"Think of everything that you have coveted...and let it go."

_Coveted? Right... When I was younger... And even sometimes now, I feel that way..._

I always wished I was a true Uchiha with the Sharingan and fire ball jutsu. I always felt like I didn't belong because I wasn't like that. As a nickname, the kids used to call me the "White Flame" of the Uchiha clan. I hated the name. It only showcased my difference. I never believed that I was worthy of wearing the crest or residing within the district and I always coveted Sasuke's powers.

"Appreciate your strengths and weaknesses alike." He ordered us. "Appreciate yourselves."

It was the most difficult one so far to open. It was so deeply sowed. But with meditation, I believe that I let those greedy feelings go.

"Congratulations, you've opened your seventh gate. You now have self-worth." He said.

"The final gate is the gate of Truth and it is blocked by lies." He told us. "What lies have you told?"

This one was simple. I glanced at Gaara. He had his hands together meditating like he was trying really hard to find something he'd lied about. He was a truthful guy. Unlike me...

I recalled the couple of minutes after the chunin exams that I sat with Gaara under the tree and he told me that I was the nine tails jinchuriki. I kept it a secret from Sasuke and everyone for a long time and only told Sasuke when I almost killed him again, on the dock.

I lied about being a jinchuriki...because I never wanted to be.

No one ever asked me what I thought about carrying this evil. Gaara told me I was a hero for it. That we were all heroes. But I couldn't care less. Because of this stupid duty to my village... I was an outcast and had to leave my family before I accidently killed them all.

"You cannot lie about your own nature. You must accept your destiny. You are jinchurki." Said Mifune.

I closed my eyes slowly.

"You are your tailed beast, and your tailed beast IS you. You cannot shun part of your being."

The nine tails stared me down again inside that inner part of mine. We stared at each other, saying nothing...very slowly, I watched as he shrunk into a boy just my height and weight, his hair was the same color as mine, too. I had blue eyes and the boy had red eyes. I reached out to him. He snarled at me but I ignored it and pulled him toward me. I wrapped my arms around him and pressed him into my chest.

"Come...be a part of me." I told him.

Slowly, the other Naruto sunk into my body and then the place was silent. There was no one there...except me...

"Good, I see the purity within you all. You've accepted yourselves." Mifune said. "You've just passed the final gate."

*Dark Room*

"Well, that was intense." I muttered.

There was a community bath-hall. We were all given a break before our final step.

"Yeah..." Gaara mumbled.

I finished splashing water on my face and grabbed a paper towel.

"By the way...remember that grief chakra?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Who did you lose?" I asked.

"My Uncle Yashirmaru and I went on a dangerous mission together a couple of years ago. I saw him killed right before my eyes and I couldn't do anything about it."

He squeezed the towel in this hand.

"I have to learn how to control this beast." Gaara said. "So, I can be of use."

I nodded. "Right."

"I didn't really get the insight one though." Gaara said, scratching his head. "I feel like I'm trying to pass a test at the academy..."

"I know..." I muttered.

I was beginning to feel like I was the only one who successfully unlocked the insight gate. Everyone was muttering pretty discouraging things about it.

We all returned to the wide room where we had been meditating. He pointed to nine doors behind him that I'd never noticed before.

"Behind these doors are blank rooms." Mifune told us. "Blank rooms are rooms that mirror your consciousness. Inside these rooms, you are expected to confront your tailed beast and find some common ground between them and yourselves. If you do this successfully, you will have complete control over your beast."

Gaara nodded at me, I nodded at Killer Bee and he showed us both a thumbs-up.

_This is it..._

We all walked toward our respective doors.

"When are you going to let us out?" I asked Mifune.

He stood behind us all with a couple of samurai assistants.

"I cannot open the door from out here. You must let yourself out from the inside."

I raised my eyebrows.

"But what if I can't get out?"

"Then you failed." Mifune said simply.

Everyone slowly put their hands on the knob...

"You may enter."

And turned the knob.

I stepped inside of black room. As soon as I stepped inside, the door faded into nothing and I realized that I was standing in the center of...nothing. It was pitch black. There was nothing to see or hear.

_But if this room is mirroring my consciousness... Shouldn't I be seeing something?_

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, the gigantic fox demon that used to plague my nightmares appeared in front of me.

"Naruto." He said.

My eyes widened. Suddenly, the large black space condensed on me. Gravity was taking effect. I fell down before him onto the wet floor in the hall I came to before when I hugged the other me. But this time... I was on the OTHER side of the gate.

I calmed myself...remembering my meditation. I was pure. There was nothing to be afraid of.

"Aren't you frightened?"

"I told you already." I said steadily. "I'm not afraid of you."

He stared me down, saying nothing.

"So, what do you want?" he asked me.

I was shocked by his directness. I had been bracing myself for some kind of war. Some kind of crazy situation where I'd have to physically fight him to get him to understand what I meant. Or even crazier, steal his chakra so that he couldn't over-take me anymore.

"Uh...I..."

And then, suddenly, I realized I wasn't completely sure what I wanted.

"You just came into my sanctuary for no reason?"

I smiled sheepishly.

"Well, it's my body...can't I take a tour?"

I huffed and out his large head down on his front paws.

"Tour all you want...there's nothing to see here."

His tone struck me as...sad. Not angry, violent or vicious...but just sad. I looked around, left and right. He wasn't lying. There wasn't much to see. The entire place was so dimly lit, it was difficult to tell whether the small bit of light was really there or if it was just imaginary. There were clear walls surrounding us. On his side of the gate, the side I'd never ventured over to, there was an extremely limited space. There were even chains...on his front paws. Very suddenly, all of my caution flew out of the window.

"You're...not a threat to me." I said, astonished.

He his eyes opened slowly.

"You're just as lonely as I am, aren't you?"

He said nothing. I sighed, sitting down cross-leggedly in front of him, so close, in fact, that he could've moved his mouth and eaten me in a millisecond.

"You know...all this time, I've kind of hated you." I began. "I was so scared of you... scared of that voice in my head telling me to hurt the people I cared about... I never thought to ask...why do you say that?"

He closed his eyes again.

"Why do you tell me to hurt people?" I clarified.

"If you destroy them all, you won't have to feel pain when they leave you." He told me. "If you hurt them first, you won't be giving them a chance to hurt you even worse."

"I see." I said. "I get it now... You're really...just like me, aren't you? I believed that you were nothing but a beast. Nothing but complete evil... But now...now, I understand, you're-"

"You're wrong." He said. "Everything that they taught you is correct. I am a beast."

His voice was rising.

"I destroy, I kill, I cause pain without a second thought about it. I care about no other existence except my own." He said, rising back up onto his feet.

I could've shat myself...he was so much bigger than I was but... The truth wouldn't leave me. I was not afraid.

"You won't hurt me."

"Oh, really!? I can sneeze and blow your whole body apart. Give me ONE reason not to!" he roared.

"Because...I am you." I told him. "If you kill me, you die."

"I'll be reborn anyway!" he protested.

I shrugged, still keeping my position on the ground.

"If you wanted to kill me, you would've done it by now." I told him. "This is the first time I've ever been on YOUR side of the gate and yet...you're just standing there."

He glared at me and got back down into his lying position angrily.

"Everything you say means nothing to me."

I sighed.

"I think the reason you're so angry is because you're defensive." I said. "You're afraid of people hurting you, so you want to hurt them first so that they don't get the chance."

"Both of those times I almost lost control it was because I was feeling negative with Sasuke. I was jealous of him." I said. "I couldn't appreciate my own worth. I didn't see where I belonged... And you wanted to help me solve that by erasing Sasuke."

He closed his eyes.

"But you can't just erase people when things get tough, especially not people you love." I said. "Even though I feel competitive with Sasuke, I don't know what my life would be like...if I was without him."

"Perfectly fine." The nine tails said. "I've been in here alone all this time and I've done fine."

Finally, it all made sense to me.

Of course... Of course it's this way... He's truly just like the rest of us. He might be large and frightening but he has a heart. He feels intense pain over never being able to trust anyone or form strong bonds. He treats all of his problems like shuriken practice, just hit the target and move onto the next one. He thinks everyone is out to get him, so he's filled with hatred. It's all just a manifestation of his loneliness. I know that... If I had been locked up inside some strange kid's head for fourteen years, I'd be incredibly lonely...and hurt...and untrusting. And what about the previous jinchurki? They probably didn't care about him either. How does it feel...to live out all your life in abandonment...in confinement... What the heck did he even do?

"I think I finally understand the purpose of that purification training."

He glanced at me.

"Even if the samurai wasn't sure if it would work, I can see how important it is now. I had to learn courage, so that I wouldn't let my fear blind me from speaking to you. And I had to learn peace, so that I would be able to share my inner peace with you. And I had to learn success so that I would know that anything was possible. And I had to learn truth so that I could see through your lies. And I had to learn strength so that I would be able to shoulder both of our burdens. And I needed to know love and self-worth so I wouldn't be overcome by your grief and sorrow... But most of all, I needed insight, I really needed that..."

He raised his eyebrows.

"All insight taught you was the obvious thing." He told me. "That you are all ninja. That stone ninja, leaf ninja, mist, rain, cloud, sand and sound are all one in the same, right? I could've told you that. I hate you all just the same."

I smiled at him.

"Well, yeah... I insight did teach me that. But I needed that insight to see through the biggest illusion of all."

He stared at me. I finally stood up and walked toward him. Very slowly, I put my hand on the fur next to his nose and stroked it.

"I need that to realize that...there truly is no difference between you and I."

He laughed at me. I was surprised. I didn't think he even had a laugh.

"You really are something else, kid." He said through bursts of laugher. "Truly, you are a piece of work. What can you, a fourteen year old leaf kid, have in common with me, a fox demon who is eons old?"

I still had my hand on his snout that entire time. I smiled at him. His one eye was almost as big as my entire body. He stared me down, daring me to defy him. I took the dare.

"We both know pain." I told him.

He said nothing, he closed his eyes again.

"Except, I want to truly understand YOUR pain." I said. "So, tell me about all the eons of years you were alive. Who hurt you? Why are you in confinement anyway? Who came up with the idea that tailed beasts would all be jailed?"

He looked at me, eyes full of shock.

"I want to know your history." I said. "So that I can understand your pain."

"No."

Now, it was my turn to look shocked.

"What?! But you know everything about me!" I protested.

"It'll just be a waste of time." He said. "There's nothing you can do to change the fate of a tailed beast."

I walked away from him and found a nice patch of floor between him and the gate. I lay down spread eagle and looked up at the pitch black ceiling. I got an odd sense of de'ja vu...like I was star gazing with Sasuke again.

"We have all the time in the world, nine tails." I said. "I'm not going anywhere until I hear your story."

He grumbled.

"My name is Kurama." He said. "And if that's the case you'll be waiting forever."

I couldn't help but smile.

_Then I guess we're stuck together forever..._

Author's Note: (Naruto and Sasuke will rendezvous next time!)


	3. Chapter 3

Sasuke

*The Genjutsu Game*

The rush of waterfalls sounded behind us. I put my hands together like I was kneading chakra and closed my eyes like he was doing but nothing was happening. Meditation wasn't really my thing. My mind kept wandering. I listened to the birds cawing above and water pooling in the river near us. We sat under an overhang for genjutsu practice. I continued allowing my consciousness to reel in my surroundings. Frogs hopped by me. I could sense a squirrel nearby burrowing for acorns... Wait...wait...

"Wait, a second!" I exclaimed.

I turned around and was surprised to see a vast valley with multiple waterfalls, a large luscious green forest and many grazing forest animals.

"Now, you've finally realized?" he asked.

"Damn..."

It was less like genjutsu "practice" and more like a genjutsu "game", a game that teenage Uchiha members played with each other probably since the dawn of time. As soon as you unlocked your second totem, you were eligible to play. I'd never played before that day even though I'd long since unlocked my second totem. I would see the kids sitting there cross-leggedly with their eyes closed and it always looked incredibly tedious to me. They just looked like they were wasting time. So I avoided it. But this... This wasn't useless at all.

Well, it was boring at first. We had been sitting there without moving for at least thirty minutes, it had taken SO long for something to happen.

Itachi opened his eyes and looked at me.

"Do you see the point of this 'game' now?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Clearly it's a game of patience." I responded.

Sit there for as long as you can and whoever breaks concentration first is vulnerable to be easily pulled into a genjutsu by the other player.

"But I didn't look into your eyes..." I mused. "I don't recall sensing anything strange either."

"Of course you didn't." he said. "Genjutsu is the art of unawareness. If you noticed the spell I was putting over you, it would've defeated the purpose."

The beautiful scene around us slowly faded. We came back to the room we had initially been sitting inside. The large, dark, empty room inside the Uchiha hideout.

"How did you cast it?" I asked. "How could you have done that when I wasn't looking at you at all?"

"Genjutsu's are not just casted with the eyes." He said. "When you are in a genjutsu, all five senses are being manipulated therefore, it's clear that-"

"That a genjutsu can be casted by all five senses!" I pointed out. "Of course..."

My mind flashed back to halfway through the thirty minutes. He'd begun knocking on the floor...knocking...knocking...knocking... It was soft. And I didn't want to break concentration so I pretended that it wasn't happening. Later, I felt a soft breeze going up my arms. Then suddenly, I smelled a woody, earthy kind of smell. Like I was deep in a forest. That was when I completely broke concentration and opened my eyes to see the waterfalls and everything.

"Let's play again."

"Do you think you're going to win?" he asked me.

I didn't reply.

_No, I'm certain I'm going to win. I won't lose to you._

However, by the end of my genjutsu training, we'd probably played that game a hundred times and I still hadn't won once.

"You're getting close though." He reassured me.

I sighed.

_Don't patronize me._

Well, I could give myself at least SOME credit. It didn't take long for me to get advanced enough to be able to tell when the genjutsu was sneaking up on me. I could easily sense that he was trying to cast a genjutsu and tune out whatever sounds or smells he was creating by focusing hard on what I remembered to be reality. Soon, it was child's play; I treated it like the game it was. The only REAL way for me to get caught in his genjutsu was if I forgot what my surroundings looked like. Unfortunately for him, all this training was doing wonders for my concentration and patience levels, so that was almost impossible.

This created a complete stalemate. While I was adept at avoiding his mind tricks, I couldn't yet figure out how to catch him in my own trick. This resulted in hours and hours of concentration...and when I say, hours, I seriously mean HOURS.

I crushed a Sakura blossom between my fingers. I had discretely picked it up before we'd sat down to play the game. I didn't think of it as cheating. I thought of it as preparation. Slowly, with my eyes still closed, I blew the scent out to him. When I believed he'd gotten at least a whiff of the scent, I blew harder, attempting to distract him with the cool feeling of the breeze.

"Nice try." I heard him say.

I sighed, breaking concentration, opening my eyes and relaxing. He relaxed, too, smiling at me in that "teacher" kind of way.

"Really, it was good." He said. "Might've gotten me if this wasn't a hot day...void of breezes."

Right... It was hot. That was why we both took off our shirts. That was precisely the reason why I blew that breeze. I knew he'd have a lot of skin exposed and get caught easier.

"I know." I told him in exasperation. "I thought that if you felt a breeze it would break your concentration by making you want more of that feeling since it's so hot."

"It's just a bit too obvious that it's hot." He explained. "Instead of making your victim appreciate the feeling and thus creating an opening, you're putting your victim on guard."

"'Tch."

I lay on my back, staring up at the darkened ceiling.

"We don't much time left to practice." He told me.

_I'd be shocked if we did..._

It had been at least a half a year since we left Konoha. Somewhere between that day and the day we left, I turned fifteen. We didn't stay in the Uchiha Hideout the entire time. We traveled to other villages and towns in the middle of nowhere and gathered info. Since I'd already been on an Intel mission for almost four months with Team 7, I'd gained patience for that kind of thing...but not by much.

"I thought this was a seek and destroy mission not a sit on our asses and wait mission." I'd asked him more than once.

Itachi smiled at me.

"Are you complaining? And here I thought you'd become patient and understanding."

I sighed.

"You're avoiding my question." I had reminded him.

His expression turned serious. I knew that it was the time I would get a solid answer.

"The other shinobi from the other lands who went to fight the Akatsuki have been killed." He said.

"And so...our mission is halted?" I asked, already feeling disappointed.

"No." He told me. "The Third Hokage told me that if I believe I can take some of them down, then I should do whatever I can to complete the mission."

"So what are we waiting for?" I asked him at that time slamming my hands down on the table.

"You." He said. "Your genjutsu capabilities are not strong enough yet."

After that day, I started busting my ass to learn. There was no way I was going to let him blame our mission failure on my incompetence. In time, I started getting better.

"I don't need any more practice, I'm ready." I finally said, sitting up and staring him dead in the face.

"So certain." He said, then he nodded at me. "I think you're ready, too."

That threw me off guard. I gave him a questioning look.

"Well, you've yet to catch me in a genjutsu, but that's _me_." He said. "I have no doubt that you're strong enough to catch someone else."

_You're missing the point, brother. All this is useless if I still can't defeat you._

Suddenly, he reached over and plucked my forehead.

"But you need to work on your critical thinking skills."

I rolled my eyes and rubbed my forehead sorely.

"Can you stop that? I'm not a child." I complained.

As I jerked backwards, the Uchiha necklace I had been consistently wearing tapped against my bare chest lightly. I rubbed the metallic piece between my forefinger and thumb. A habit I had taken up at some point.

Itachi looked down at it.

"You haven't been sending Satomi-chan any letters." He pointed out.

"I never promised her I'd do something like that." I mumbled. "Only Naruto..."

Then I trailed off, even Naruto hadn't been sending letters. I was beginning to worry about him but I put my worries aside in face of beating Itachi. Still, I wondered what he was doing. Did he stop writing because there was nothing to say, it was just _that _boring, or...was he being _forced_ to stop?

"Don't you think she'll worry?"

I scoffed. "Like I care."

That was a bit of a lie. I did care. I had begun thinking of her a bit more than I thought of Naruto. But I didn't want_ her_ to know that. I didn't want anyone to know, really.

Itachi saw through my lie in seconds.

"If you didn't care about her, you wouldn't keep that necklace so close to you." He protested.

I immediately dropped it from between my fingers and looked away from him.

"You never take it off." He went on.

"So what?"

"So... Your big brother isn't cool enough to know what you _really_ think?"

I slowly turned my head to him and sighed.

"It's not that I don't care about her." I muttered, lying on my back. "It's just that if I tell her that and admit it, then I'll have to actually _act_ like I care. I don't have to time to sit around and write love letters."

He raised his eyebrows.

"I see. It's easier to just mess around with her whenever you feel like it without having to be attentive to her all the time." He said.

I nodded.

"Exactly!" I said, feeling relieved that he understood.

A smile spread onto his face.

"That's sounds like you're just afraid of commitment." He pointed out.

I was caught off guard.

"I-I'm not-"

"It's fine. If you want to mess around with every girl you meet without ever settling down..."

"I never said I wanted to do that." I protested. "I'm only interested in _her_!"

He grinned.

"Then, why not commit to her?"

I opened my mouth but no words came out. I literally could not find the words to disagree.

Seeing my lost for words, he began laughing. After a second or two more of being irritated, I couldn't help but join in. There was honestly nothing quite like being with my older brother.

*Hokage*

"There he is."

"What is he doing alone?"

I felt like it was so ridiculous that the Akatsuki had such a loud uniform. A black cloak with red clouds on it, really? So, everywhere you go, your outfit is attracting alarm. Well, I guess this specific member didn't have that problem. Strangely, he was wandering around a morgue. No one really cares what you do for a living at a morgue.

"This place gives me the creeps." We heard him mutter.

"What is he doing there anyway?"

"My crows tell me he lost his partner a couple of hours ago."

"Did someone kill him?" I asked.

"No, he's dropping a corpse off at a money bank. I'm sure this one here knows that his partner is fond of trading dead people for money, so he's waiting around this morgue to see if he will come back."

We were crouching on the top of the morgue. It was dark, around nine or ten pm. But time meant nothing to an Uchiha, in fact, darkness was better...

"This timing is perfect...easier to confuse him into a genjutsu." I muttered.

"That's right." He agreed.

I glanced at him and realized what I said.

_Oh, god...now I'm even starting to _think_ like Itachi._

Suddenly, a crow popped up next to him. Attached to the crows leg was a note. He slid back off of the edge of the roof.

"Itachi, worry about that later." I told him. "Mission first, right?"

"I'm afraid not this time." He said. "This letter...has the Hokage's seal on it."

_I see. Hokage seals are S-rank mission level...meaning it rivals the mission we have now._

I continued watching the Akatsuki member.

"Oh, Jashin!" he groaned.

I glanced back at Itachi to see his eyes darting across the paper quickly. His eyes widened and his eyebrows rose high.

"This...isn't good news." He said quietly.

"What?"

The face he'd just made worried me more than anything else. I didn't even think my brother HAD a shocked expression.

"The Third Hokage...was killed." He reported to me. "By an Akatsuki member named Orochimaru who had been hiding out in the village."

My mind flashed back to Tsunade recounting the run-in she'd had with him and another man named Kabuto that they'd barely escaped.

_But I thought they were aware of Orochimaru's presence? How was he still able to gain the upper hand?_

"He's destroying the village single-handedly." Itachi told me. "There are already a lot of casualties. The military is barely strong enough to hold him back. Konoha is under attack."

My brain froze.

_Home is under attack? That's impossible... Satomi is at home... And so are Ota-san and Oka-san and Kakashi and Hinata and Konohamaru... Everyone is..._

"This letter is a reverse summoning style letter only able to be created by someone with immense power...such as Danzo of the Konoha underground."

I said nothing.

"Danzo was a leader who always coveted the Hokage position." Itachi went on. "I knew him very well. I know he sent this letter."

"Why does it matter who sent it?" I questioned.

"Because...at the end of this letter, there is a Hokage stamp certifying my immediate promotion to the Hokage position."

I turned around and stared at him.

_...What?!_

"And if Danzo, a man who would've rather died than let anybody other than him become Hokage, wrote this letter... That means he probably knew he wouldn't be around to take the position."

_In other words, he wrote it right before he ran head first into a suicide mission, simply to get revenge on that bastard for killing the Third Hokage. He must've...really cared about him._

We stared at each other.

"I must go." He said, standing up.

The Akatsuki member was sitting on the steps right below us so even if we stood he wouldn't see us.

"Right, me too." I said.

He shook his head.

"No." he said. "This is a perfect opportunity to take down an Akatsuki member. One of us must finish this mission."

"Then you do it and I'll go home and check on Mom and Satomi and the rest." I proposed.

_Listen to me..._

"It makes more sense for you to handle this guy and then come meet me. You said it yourself that you're stronger than me." I went on. "If I get home first, I can help the resistance."

"Sasuke." He said steadily. "As the Hokage of the Village Hidden in Leaves, I must do my duty to my village...meaning I must report home immediately."

_I know, I know, I'm being unreasonable but..._

"But-"

_I need to make sure they're safe._

"And as your superior, I order you to stay here, capture or kill the Akatsuki member, and return home only after you are finished."

_My only purpose in life is to protect them._

"I understand your point but you're not listening to me." I said.

He turned around and opened the letter fully, about to release the reverse summoning.

_They're in danger...you can't leave me here..._

"Itachi, you _will_ take me with you, I-" I said walking up to him.

"Sasuke." He said again.

I froze, somehow, his voice sounded different.

"If you fail this mission or refuse to complete it then..."

He glared at me, Sharingan unlocked and taking a strange pattern in his eye.

"Never return to Konoha again."

The letter exploded and so did he and his crow in a rush of feathers.

My hand was still outstretched toward him, I slowly pulled it back and stood there, staring at the spot he used to be, shaking.

His eyes...what was up with them? It wasn't the normal three totems... They had this strange pattern...

*Sasuke vs. Hidan*

_He can't be serious about banishing me..._

I slowly walked back to the edge of the roof and peered over. He sat there with his head in his hands muttering to himself.

_But just in case he is, I'm not going to mess this up._

I had the advantage because he wasn't aware of me at all. I strung a demon wind shuriken to some thin wire and hung it over his head.

_This should be enough...as long as he doesn't move._

_Three...two...one_

I dropped the four pronged shuriken right in front of him and then used the string to swiftly pull it up and into his stomach. He flew back against the building and I pulled the wire further so that it shoved the shuriken through his belly, out of his back and pinned him against the wall there.

_Well, that was surprisingly easy. Who the hell are they hiring as Akatsuki members these days?_

"Hey!" the guy screamed. "Come here and look me in the eyes like a man, you bastard!"

I jumped from the top of the roof and landed down in front of him.

"You're the one who did this? A little brat like you?" he asked me.

I said nothing.

"Good thing you showed up, though." He said. "Lord Jashin was getting thirsty for a sacrifice."

He grabbed the shuriken, pulled it out of himself and threw it back at me. I was too close to dodge completely. It scraped my shoulder.

_Dammit... Of course he'd be an immortal... Just my luck._

He jumped down and grabbed a large staff with three dull knives jutting out of the top of it.

"Who are you anyway?" he asked me pointing at me with the staff.

_That weapon... Isn't something you use to kill people. The most it can do it give me a superficial gash. What kind of trick is that?_

I unlocked my Sharingan and squared up against him.

"Oh? You think you're going to fight?!" he asked me. "Well come on then!"

_Asking me to come first? That's odd seeing as how I just disgraced him by using a shuriken to pin him to a wall through his stomach. A normal man would be pulling out all the stops, using every ninjutsu they knew but he..._

He stood with his staff still extended toward me. He stayed where he was, grinning at me.

_Of course. He's a short-range fighter. That's why he isn't doing any techniques. He needs me get closer. And moreover..._

"Scared?" he asked. "Bitten off more than you can chew, kid?"

_He's probably better at fighting defensively. Because that staff is so long, he can easily get into an offensive position during the confusion of battle and strike me. So he's egging me on to help his own battle strategy. The last thing I want to do is get close to this idiot..._

I ran at him, completely unarmed and vulnerable. I brought my arm back, activated the Chidori, and extended it toward him as a new attack I'd named the Chidori True Spear.

_This guy isn't too bright. He's looking right at me._

"Gotcha!" he exclaimed, pulling the staff around me.

Blood dripped from the tip of the swords on his staff. There were three more cuts on my upper arm to accompany the first one.

He laughed hysterically, and bent down to draw a circle around him. Suddenly, his skin was changing colors. He changed to black and white. He laughed again.

"Be terrified!" he yelled. "You're about to witness your death."

I stared at him solemnly.

His smile turned to a snarl.

"Take this!"

He jabbed a sharp pole into his thigh and screamed out with the painful pleasure of the feeling. My face remained emotionless, I stared him down.

He grimaced and pulled the pole back up and stabbed himself again, this time through the stomach.

"Why aren't you screaming in pain?" he asked.

He continued stabbing himself, other arm, through the eye, through his foot.

"I'll kill you!"

Finally, worn out, he positioned the pole so it would go through his heart.

"Die!" he screamed.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I finally said.

He paused.

"So, it talks huh?" he asked. "And why not?"

"Just take a look at yourself." I told him.

He looked down and almost dropped to the floor realizing that all the damage he'd been trying to inflict to me, was done to himself. The only eye he had left bulged in it's socket. The outside of the building was made of iron, he turned and looked at the reflection of himself. He was bleeding out.

His knees buckled and he fell to the ground.

"This is...impossible!"

His body quivered in pain.

"Stop trying to trick me!" he declared. "This is my jutsu!"

He stabbed himself again, through the stomach. But I wasn't harmed, just him.

"I won't be made a fool of!"

And again, through the throat.

His screaming turned to gurgles after that. It was a disgusting sight to see. Especially for me because I wasn't in a genjutsu. Where he saw me standing there, bleeding profusely, but not dying. I was actually not bleeding at all and in reality, he was lying on the ground writing in pain from having stabbed himself so much.

_So, I was correct afterall. This idiot stars in close quarters combat because he has this ridiculous ability to kill someone just by taking their blood sample. That's why his staff isn't made for killing. _

I imagined Itachi standing there, smiling at me.

"Your observational skills have grown tremendously, little brother."

None of the wounds were showing up on me because he'd never taken my blood sample to begin with.

The guy didn't even recognize a Sharingan when he saw it. As soon as I unlocked my Sharingan, he was under a genjutsu. I never ran at him. I was never cut by his staff. He turned black, drew that circle, and went on stabbing himself because I willed him to do so. I wondered if he would finally kill himself at one point.

Right at that moment, he stabbed himself through the heart. My eyebrows rose questioningly as he stopped, not moving.

"No! Why won't you die?!" he screamed out suddenly.

I sighed and extended my hand as lightning sparks began to course through it.

I extended the Chidori spear and cut his head from his neck cleanly. Then, quickly afterwards, I did a fire ball jutsu and burned his body. I couldn't burn it completely but I did succeed in burning it beyond recognition or future use. I walked over and grabbed his head.

"I'll kill you yet!" he promised.

"Yeah, yeah...whatever." I mumbled.

*Hawks*

"You should probably learn a summoning." Itachi said to me a couple of days into our training leave.

"Why is that?"

"It's incredibly helpful for getting you from point A to point B in a short amount of time."

"When you make a contract with summoning animals, you can summon them and they can summon you, too. It's a partnership. My animal is the crow."

I had already known he had a peculiar relationship with crows. But it was something I didn't think about often. Noticed but not dwelled upon...

"Would you like to sign a contract with crows?" he asked me.

I considered the thought, mulled it over in my head. Crows were interesting, they were just birds but in many aspects they seemed menacing, like predators. Free themselves but somehow eager to force others into chains. Crows were perfect animals for my brother who was often misunderstood. The more I thought of it, however, the more I disliked it. I was tired of living in his shadow. I wanted something unique. He guessed my feelings.

"Perhaps another kind of animal?"

I shook my head.

"No." I said. "I like birds but just not crows."

"Well, you think about it." He said.

One day, I was alone outside the hideout, looking for a tree bearing fruit and I spotted a snake. As soon as I saw it, an idea formed in my head. Snakes would be perfect for me. They're sneaky and cunning, that sounds like me. But as soon as I approached it, a hawk swooped down from the sky and plucked the snake right off the ground. Just like that, the snake was subject to nature. I gazed upon the sky, hypnotized by the thought of something as smart as a snake being captured. Suddenly, I became aware that conniving creatures are worthless in the grand scheme. What's the point of slithering upon the ground like a slave...when you can have the power to control the skies?

"Hawks." I told him that day.

And they became my summoning animal as quickly as that. It did take some training to get strong enough to be able to summon the largest hawk. But compared to the genjutsu game, that was nothing.

I summoned a hawk. The biggest hawk there was...Takami.

"Hello, there, Sasuke-kun." She said.

"I need to get to Konoha as quickly as possible."

"I'll do my best."

I pulled myself into the batch of feathers on my back and positioned the annoying, talking head of Hidan next to me. She lifted off the ground, wings raised, and bolted ahead. There truly was nothing like flying... It was something special. Something only hawk summons would be able to enjoy.

I sat up higher on Takami and looked below me. We were flying right over the final valley, bathed in moonlight. The eyes of Madara Uchiha shined out at me. I remember visiting the valley as a child for a field trip in the academy.

"And this...!" Iruka Sensei declared. "Is the Final Valley!"

We hadn't learned how to knead chakra so that we could walk on water yet. But Naruto was so excited, he ran out into the water like he could do it anyway. The entire class stared at him as he pulled his shirt off and dove into the water. He soon resurfaced, droplets of water glistening off of his blonde hair.

"Aren't you all coming?" he asked.

I looked back at the class, knowing what they thought of him...

_Weirdo, freak, amateur..._

I pulled my own shirt and shoes off and jumped into the water after him without even a second wasted. As soon as I got over to him, I dunked his head in as a joke. Kiba and Choji, seeing how fun it looked, ran in after us. Then Shikamaru, after complaining for a couple seconds, and then suddenly, the entire class. Hinata hung back, but she still participated in kicking her feet in the water a bit.

"Hey! What are you all doing!?" Iruka Sensei yelled. "Come back!"

We all laughed and made faces at him, forcing him to swim out into the water after us. Instead of a history lesson, it became more like a day at the beach with Naruto the center of attention as he made up water games for us all to play. Iruka still managed to teach us a bit about our surroundings though. We sat on the shore near sunset as he pointed to the big stone statues, then bathed in lavender and orange colors.

"Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama." He told us. "One was a hero, the founder of this village, he created all the rights and freedoms we have now, the other was a villain bent on destroying everything Hashirama had stood for and taking away everyone's hope and peace. In the end, the evil was destroyed by Hashirama, rightly so."

I didn't question anything at the time. Uchiha's were always doing evil things in the history books. But as I stared into those shining eyes, I couldn't help but wonder if those stone statues had more of a story to tell.

The head under my arm twitched, brining me back to the present.

"Jashin will be pleased when you're finished!"

I rolled my eyes almost willing myself to take him out of the genjutsu just so he could see the situation he was in but I was too smart to let my annoyance get the better of me.

"How much father, Takami-san?" I asked.

I knew she was flying as fast as she could but I was on edge. Something bad was happening. I could feel it in my bones. And it coupled with all of the bad feelings I had been having the entire time I'd been on that long term mission. My worries about Naruto... My questions about the Akatsuki...

"We're almost there."

She was right. I craned my neck to see over her large white feathery head and saw a bubble of orange and red on the navy blue horizon. The moonlight wasn't giving the village a scenic, peaceful look. It looked like complete chaos. The closer we got, the louder I could hear screams.

Soon we were swooping over the village. Smoke was rising. I could see a multitude of villagers being led into the secret hiding places inside the Hokage mountain. Leaf ninja in uniform were scrambling about below, running from something. I wasn't sure what.

"We need to get lower." I ordered.

Takami swooped lower, then stuttered.

"The fire!" she cawed.

I wanted to tell her to go down anyway and that I would protect her, but there were no water jutsus I could recreate. I nudged her toward an empty spot near the village gates which were locked tight for security.

"Stay here." I said, tossing Hidan's head back up into her feathers. "And keep watch over him, he's an enemy."

"Yes, Sasuke-kun." She said obediently.

*Attack on Konoha*

I was already running before even waiting for her response. I was relieved to discover that I was faster than before. Taijutsu practice with Itachi wasn't a joke either. It was like that guy was perfect in every aspect of the word...

I bounded onto the top of one of the telephone poles and looked around the village. I was happy to see it again after so long...but not this way. I used my Sharingan to make a quick sweep of my immediate areas. Leaf ninja were everywhere. As I gazed toward Ichikaru Ramen, Naruto's favorite hang-out spot which was completely caved in, I saw two leaf ninja...fighting each other...

_What the hell...?_

Suddenly, there was a screeching sound to my left.

"Somebody please help me!" the voice sounded.

It sounded like a kid. I turned and jumped to the ground watching as a snake, three times larger than a small boy in a large gray tunic and a dark green head wrap.

"Ahhh!" he screamed, trying to get away.

His leg was caught under the roof of what used to be the Weapons' Shoppe. He gripped the dirt desperately looking like he was ready to cut his own leg off. I blew my Phoenix Fire jutsu at the snake which was easily caught in the blaze. I jumped down and lifted the roof off of the kid.

He slowly turned and looked up at me. I reached out for him and he shrunk back, damaging his leg more by trying to scramble away.

"I'm not your enemy." I said. "Calm down."

"My mommy told me don't trust anyone!" he shouted.

"I'm a ninja." I said.

I realized I wasn't wearing my headband or the chunin vest or any kind of uniform. I racked my brain for a legitimate excuse but he wasn't listening anyway.

"Especially ninja!" he went on. "My mommy told me that I especially shouldn't trust ninja!"

The scene of the two ninja fighting each other flashed through my mind.

_Did the Akatsuki somehow infiltrate our ranks?_

He started crawling away. I sighed, momentarily contemplating letting him run off and be stupid. When I finally decided to go after him, it was too late. He'd found a small child-sized hole in the side of an apartment building that was on fire and climbed through it.

"Hey!" I shouted. "Come back!"

But he didn't answer.

_Whatever... I can't waste time..._

I turned and made a beeline for my house which I assumed was still where the Uchiha district used to be. I heard screams all around me but tried not to let it distract me. Under my feet, the ground began shaking and rumbling. I looked up to the orange hazy sky trying to detect any presence and almost ran head first into a giant snake slithering into my path. I jumped over it, barely saving my leg as the gray beast lunged for me.

_What's up with all these snakes anyway?_

As I jumped over it, I blew my fire ball jutsu at it, landed and continued on my path. Something was telling me it was incredibly important to get home. Something was really bothering me... I was running so quickly, everything around me was a blur even with my Sharingan on.

As I ran past one alley, I glanced to my left and was shocked to see around five snakes suddenly fly around in all directions. I paused, my eyes quickly scoping out the ninja.

"Hinata!?"

She glanced over at me, face breaking out into surprise.

"Oh, hey Sasuke." She said, running over.

She gave me a quick hug and smiled fondly at me.

"I didn't think you'd be home so soon."

"Let's walk and talk." I said, taking up the route to my house. "What's going on?"

"It's chaos." She told me. "Hard to say."

"Did the Akatsuki infiltrate Konoha?" I asked, looking down all the roads.

On one path, I saw two genin looking ninja trying to keep a large snake off a villager. On another I saw three jounin looking ninja trying to use water jutsus to put out all the flames. And on another I saw four leaf ninja having a full out war with each other.

"Yes." She said. "The guy... Orochimaru, I think? He and his accomplice infiltrated the ranks somehow and implanted their own ninja."

_Their own ninja...?_

"From what village?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"I was with the Third Hokage right before the attack. He thinks it might be an entirely new village that he created."

_A new village? _

"Satomi thinks it could be people from all the other villages combined though."

"So... Where is she anyway?" I asked.

"The last time I saw her, she was helping the Third Hokage fight."

My heart skipped.

_But, the Third Hokage is..._

"How long ago was that?"

"A while ago." She said. "Maybe three or four hours ago."

I cursed myself for wanting to look for her.

_No, home first._

I sped up so much Hinata was having a bit of trouble keeping up with me. But not much. I could tell she had been training, too. She was wearing a chunin vest and the entire navy blue uniform. She must've been promoted to chunin level while I was gone.

The Uchiha symbol loomed in the distance. I could tell that symbol anywhere. We dove through the smoke surrounding the place and past the metal fence. Right inside the gate, a man was lying on his back seeming to be struggling to breathe. Hinata skidded to a stop and I nodded at her. I didn't need her to accompany me. The district was eerily quieter than the rest of the village. My house had to be closer to the back of the entire place. As I ran, my mind retreated back to a time when things were different.

"Sasuke, I'll race you home!"

I frowned.

"Why are you always kidding around?" I asked. "Can't we just walk like normal people?"

It was his turn to pout. I grinned, glad I caught him off guard, and sped past him.

"Ah! You cheated, Sasuke!" he declared, chasing after me.

Our footsteps sounded past the shops, past the old style wooden houses, past the district plaza...

My hand slammed down against the side of the house.

"I win."

His hand got there a second too late.

"Cheater." He responded.

"Nii-san told you, you have to be more aware of your surroundings." I said, wagging my finger at him.

"That has nothing to do with this!"

We walked into the house, not surprised to see Oka-san sweeping the front hall.

"How was the academy?"

"Okay." We both said in unison.

Naruto kicked his shoes off and wandered farther into the house.

"What did you learn?" she asked.

Naruto was already in the kitchen grabbing fruit out of the bowl. I was slowly taking off my shoes, lining them up neatly, and lining Naruto's shoes up from where he'd thrown them. It was the same routine every day. With the same questions and answers...

"Sign weaving." Naruto called with a mouth full of pears.

My mother ruffled Naruto's hair and then looked to me meaningfully. Naruto said 'sign weaving' everyday. It wasn't really what we learned. I smiled.

"The history of Konoha." I said truthfully.

She grinned.

"Sounds interesting."

Naruto would then raise his arms to my mother.

"Mikoto-san, can we play sign weaving?"

She would always smile and pick him up and sit him on the kitchen table. He extended his hands to her and she grasped them in hers.

"Dog..." she said, moving his fingers. "Tiger... Snake..."

They would go over all the signs with her gently pushing his little fingers into each position. I was way passed learning all the signs. That was five year old stuff. We were at least ten year olds by that point. Naruto wasn't an idiot either. It was obvious to me that he begged for that attention because he wanted special time with her. As she smiled softly at him, I knew she understood that, too.

Instead of watching them, I'd go find my father where he was in his office. Since he wasn't the village head, he spent his time being a sword architect. He drafted swords that other people would come buy the blueprints for so they could make them. His swords were beginning to become a bit legendary. Very oddly, he named the sword brand "Fire Shadow". I would sit on his desk as he drew his blueprints. At that time in my life, it wasn't anywhere near as difficult to be around him as it was when I got older. I was fine with just being in his presence. Sometimes he would speak.

"This extra layer." He would say, as he rubbed a dark blue line around his draft. "Is for a special kind of metal that can conduct any kind of nature that the holder has."

"So, if I'm a lightning style, I can turn it into a lightning sword?"

"Precisely." He said.

I cocked my head whimsically.

"But, Otou-chan, a water sword wouldn't be very useful, would it?"

"You'd be surprised." Was all he said.

Most of the time, he was quiet though... But I felt like I was getting something out of watching anyway. After about an hour or two spending time with my parents, Naruto would come get me.

"Let's go find Itachi and spar!" he'd usually suggest.

"Okay!" I would say, hoping off of his desk.

My fingers grazed the desk at the very place I used to sit on. I had neglected to leave my shoes at the door, eagerly searching for anyone, anything. But I circled the house twice. I didn't find my parents... Or any sign of life.

*The Sword*

My house shook. Wood shavings fell from the ceiling into my hair and stuck to my sweaty forehead. I was in my own room. Everything was exactly the way I left it. Not even a book was slightly out of place. Before I could let myself get sucked into visions of the past, I turned and left the room. I didn't know how much time I had wasted in my own house but I was certain it was more than enough. I bolted onto my outer deck, jumped the fence and rushed to the front gate of the district. I felt grateful to see someone in a leaf uniform crouched there. I felt relieved. Hinata had waited for me. But as I neared, I could tell it was someone else. Someone with slightly lighter hair...

I came to a stop in front of her. She slowly lifted her head and smiled.

"Hinata told me you came in here." She said slowly. "I was just waiting for you."

I couldn't take my eyes away from her face. She...

She forced a laugh.

"Am I that ugly?"

Blood poured down her face. Her lip was busted. She had a black eye.

"That opponent... Is definitely not someone you should copy..."

"Satomi." I said steadily. "Who did this to you?"

Even through all the pain I knew she was feeling, her eyebrows jumped teasingly.

"What, are you going to avenge me?" she asked.

She pushed herself to her feet and leaned against the wire fence.

"Don't bother. I just came to deliver a message."

_Same old Satomi, huh?_

"I was fighting a really powerful man named Orochimaru with the Third Hokage and other Leaf Jounin." She told me. "But then we were separated by this weird barrier. I ended up having to fight another guy who was just as creepy, Kabuto. Then... Somehow... Orochimaru... He actually..."

"He killed him." I finished.

She looked at me in shock.

"Danzo sent Itachi and I a message." I told her. "What else?"

"Well, when he fell, Danzo came in to fight. I continued on with Kabuto by myself. But... His ninja... The ones they used to infiltrate Konoha. They have some weird jutsu. He used one of them against me and... I couldn't hear anything. And the absence of sound made me really disoriented. I was basically a sitting duck. It would've been a lot worse than this if Itachi-san hadn't shown up right when Danzo was finished."

"So, Danzo is dead as well?"

She nodded.

I frowned, realizing yet again that my brother was smarter than me. If I had come here trying to help, could I really have saved Satomi from such a powerful villain?

She wobbled unsteadily, pin wheeling her arms like she was about to fall backwards. I caught her before she crashed to the ground and gently leaned her against the fence in a sitting position.

"My hearing is just returning." She said. "My balance is really off. It was a miracle I even got here."

"Where is everyone fighting?" I asked.

"On top of the Hokage mansion." She said.

I turned, ready to go assist my brother in any way I could but she grabbed my leg.

"Itachi-san doesn't want you to go there." She told me.

"What?!"

"He wants you to find your parents."

"I looked already, they're not here." I said. "This whole district was probably already evacuated to the secret hiding spots."

"You're wrong." She told me. "They're all fighting desperately to escape."

I froze.

"What?"

She nodded. "The passage ways to the Hokage mountain were the first things to be destroyed. Orochimaru knew about them somehow. All the villagers are being taken outside of the North exit with Genin supervision and protection."

_Genin level? Outside the village?_

"Who came up with this plan?!"

"Your brother."

"'Tch." I muttered.

"He wants you to assist with the protection of villagers and non-fighters." She said.

"And you?"

"He didn't give me any clear orders except to wait for you to return...then pass the message on."

_So, he knew I would defeat Hidan as well. Intelligent bastard... But this plan didn't sound smart at all. Why remove everyone from the village? What was he planning? _

"Chunin are already getting the word across. The majority of the villagers are on the move." She said. "Go find your parents."

I scoffed.

"He might've just been promoted to Hokage level." I muttered. "But that doesn't mean he can give me whatever useless orders he wants."

She positioned her hands over her ears and with my Sharingan I could see the greenish chakra pouring out of her palms. She was attempting to heal her injuries. Her eyes eased closed.

"Stop being an ass, Sasuke." She said. "It's not all about you."

"Then tell me, what the hell is the purpose of a Jounin doing a Genin's job?" I asked. "He still thinks of me as a child. He just doesn't want to give me a dangerous job."

"Weren't you the one who was on a solo mission defeating an Akatsuki member? Or did Itachi-san lie about giving you that order?" she asked.

I paused.

"It sounds to me like the only one he would trust with something as precious as getting all the villagers out safe is you." She said.

Then she rolled her neck around and stood up straight.

"That should be enough." She said.

But she was walking with a limp and was still slightly unsteady.

"If anyone should be out of the line of fire, that's you." I told her. "You're not even fully healed."

"Awww." She said, looking back at me with a mock puppy-dog face. "Are you worried about me?"

"'Tch. Of course not." I muttered. "I'm worried about the mission. You're just going to destroy everything."

She sighed exaggeratedly.

"Fine. It's clear little baby Sasuke-kun wants a bottle so I'll humor you." She said. "I'll go with you to take the villagers out."

I rolled my eyes.

"Do what you want, I don't care."

I turned, planning to run but she grabbed my arm.

"Why can't you just admit that you want me around?" she asked.

I could see the playfulness in her eyes but I smacked her hand away.

"Because I don't." I said.

Her eyes eased into a cold glare. I mirrored her expression. A silence passed between us.

"_Then why not commit to her?"_

I sighed, remembering Itachi's comment, and my expression softened.

"Let's go." I said quietly.

I turned and sped off toward the North exit and she darted after me without a wasted second.

Despite her wounds, she kept up with me pretty well as we jumped atop the roofs of the houses and dodged lunging snakes. At one point, a random leaf ninja that I didn't recognize threw a shuriken in my path, trying to stop us. I turned, planning to phoenix fire him to hell but Satomi jumped over him, slipped a kunai knife out of her pouch, sliced his neck with ease and fell back into step next to me. She caught me staring at her and grinned.

"What did you think I was just sitting around while you were out having brotherly time?"

I shook my head and we ran on.

"There! I see him!" she shouted.

I looked to my right to see my father running over the top of the academy with three leaf ninja on his tail. He suddenly turned around, performed the hand signals, and blew them all off the rooftop.

"Well, damn..." I heard Satomi muttered.

I couldn't help but smile. Yeah, that was my father.

We jumped up onto the roof next to him. He appraised me momentarily.

"Back-up?"

I shook my head.

"Itachi gave me orders to evacuate everyone outside the village." I said. "Including you."

"You think I'm going to take orders from my own son?" my father asked me.

"That's exactly what I said." I agreed.

Suddenly, two ninja jumped onto the roof with us. My father tensed, ready for battle.

"Your mother's hiding in this building." He told me. "You can take her but I'm staying to fight."

I nodded at Satomi who immediately back flipped off the roof and dove into the building through a window. My father's back pressed against mine. I raised my arms, ready to be his back-up. I took on the ninja who ran at me and with my Sharingan, I could see something that no one else had seen in the six months I had been gone. But before I could unravel that mystery, I had to bring him down. His eyes were covered by bandages so it was clear that this opponent didn't fight using sight. I recalled Satomi saying that they messed with her hearing. Sound...

I whistled. The opponent's head turned toward me and he dashed toward me raising a blunt looking object above his head. Something told me I didn't want to get hit by it. My father pulled his sword out of it's holster and stabbed at his opponent who dodged easily.

"Swords have no effect on me!" he shouted, bounding around my father.

It was difficult for me to keep track of my own fight and his, also. I continued whistling at a rhythm. My opponent dove at me with the club, feeling my father's movements and predicting his actions, I ducked as he turned and met the blunt object with his sword. I spun around him and, enacted my Chidori and ran toward my father's opponent with it. He jumped away from me easily.

"It's no use! We can't be cornered by such a loud attack!"

I whistled in response. His eyebrows furrowed.

"Stop making that insufferable noise!" he yelled, coming toward me with a dagger.

My father nudged me. I ducked again, spinning around him on my heels as he blew his fire out in one of his special techniques; ring of fire. The fire circled us and then blasted out. I stood up on his other side, seeing my opponent at a disadvantage and raised my arm toward him. The opponent was stuck by my Chidori true spear.

"Impossible!" he yelled.

The chi-chi sound of my attack rang out.

"How can I be stabbed by such a nosy attack?!"

My father's opponent was almost blown off of the roof with that last attack. He jumped back on the roof and ran at us. I took my attention away from my opponent. He wasn't really stuck by my Chidori. He was caught in a genjutsu...one I had casted using his affinity for sound. My father ran at him with the sword and he jumped up, as I knew he would do, using my father's back as a springboard, I easily met him up there and back-handed him down toward my father who gave me a smile. Not just any smile. That smile. That smile I always ached for.

"Nice one, Itachi!"

I froze.

_Itachi? But... Dad, I'm..._

He blew his fire ball jutsu up toward the incoming enemy and fried him easily. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. I saw it but I couldn't pinpoint what it was. Friend or foe. Threat or not. By the time I categorized it... It was already...

"Otou-san!" I shouted.

He turned, that smile from my assistance still plastered on his face. And then it hit him. The opponent I was supposed to have taken care of. The one who was supposed to be in a genjutsu dove at him and hit him with the blunt weapon he was holding. It was a direct hit. Blood spurted from his mouth and nose. He flew off the rooftop. The opponent immediately turned to me and came for me.

"You!"

I wanted to crush his throat in my fist. I knocked his weapon away with my bare arm ignoring the pain shooting up my hand and shoulder, grabbed his face and shoved him to the ground. Chidori sparks pulsated from my palm and coursed through his face. He screamed. I could see his face frying under my hand. I didn't care.

"Unfortunately... This time, it's reality." I told him.

Even after he wasn't moving, I wanted to keep pounding him into the rooftop but I knew I had more pressing concerns. I took his Konoha headband off and felt satisfied to see another headband under it, wrapped around his fired head. I pulled the second headband off and ran to the roof edge.

My father was lying there, motionless. Two people surrounded him. One was Satomi and the other had to be...

She crouched next to him with her hands on his chest, pushing him, willing him to get up. She turned to Satomi who shook her head slowly, there was nothing she could do. Part of me wanted to turn and run away cover my ears and never come back. But that was a part of me that couldn't exist in that world. My feet hit the dirt next to my father's body. My mother's large, dark eyes rose to me. Even through despair, I could see the relief in her eyes. Glad that I was safe even though her husband wasn't...

My father coughed out more blood. It was like his brain exploded. He was bleeding from his eyes, nose and mouth. He grabbed his sword, which had fallen on the ground next to him and raised it to me.

"This..." he struggled to say.

I reached down and took the sword in my hand, gripping it so tightly my hand felt numb.

"Is yours...Sasuke."

I felt a bubbling sensation under my face. My face felt hot. I wanted to turn away but my eyes were glued to his bloody, black ones.

"Protect...them."

I knew who he was talking about without even having to look. It wasn't just my mother, or Satomi or Itachi. It was everyone. It was the village.

Slowly, his eyes closed. Mine closed, too. I remembered the day I showed him the fireball jutsu with Naruto. And all the times watching him make swords. And everything... Everything... All the times...

Nothing was ever going to be the same again, would it?

"Fugaku-san, how long are you going to stay alive?" Naruto randomly asked one day.

"That's not something you ask someone!" I shouted at him.

He shrugged.

"Cause you're already old, so I was just wondering." He said off-handedly.

I expected him to get mad. I don't know why I did. My father was never really angry... Just detached. In many ways, his detachedness felt like white anger. To my utter shock, he smiled at us both.

"Death isn't something you can call." He said. "But if I ever could decide when and how I die. I hope it's in this village, protecting the people I love, surrounded by the people I love."

Naruto cocked his head, the information was clearly flying right over his head. I understood him, to a certain point, but I never revisited that memory... Until...

Though his face was bloody, his mouth was pulled into a pleasant smile.

"You...have what you want." I whispered.

My Mother held his hand. Satmoi's hand brushed through my hair. I allowed her to pull my hair back off my forehead and hug me from behind.

_But... I can't blame you. What kind of death is better than one with the touch of the woman you love still hot on your skin? _

Naruto

*Time*

I was surprised how quickly it took to get him to talk. It felt like it was only two or three minutes of me lying down there before he sighed.

The Sage of the Six Paths...

I'd heard stories about him from Itachi-nissan. But I thought it was just that. Just stories. Suddenly, fairytale was becoming reality.

All the beasts form one beast, the ten tails. The only reason to try to get all the beasts together would be if one wanted to resurrect the ten tails.

"But I don't even know if such a thing is possible unless the Sage comes back." Kurama told me.

It sounded to me like anything and everything was becoming possible.

"So, you'll help me defeat these enemies, Kurama?" I asked him.

He huffed.

"I suppose." He agreed. "Your death isn't specifically something I want to happen but... Don't assume that we're best friends or anything."

"Too late, I already picked out a nickname for you."

My laugh rang out as he narrowed his black, beady eyes on me.

"Let's go, Kurama!"

I grasped the door handle. It was strange... It was the door to the main room where we had all mediated as a group but it was also the door to get out of my mind. I glanced back at Kurama. As we talked, I'd taken the cuffs and chains off of him. He stood tall, looking down at me. Somewhat proudly. I nodded at him and pushed the door open.

_It's time..._

"Oh! One's coming out!"

The light was almost blinding. I had to blink a couple times to steady my vision. The door swung closed behind me.

"It's the nine tails!" someone declared.

I rubbed my eyes and looked out at them clearly.

Someone's hand clapped onto my shoulder.

"Welcome back, Naruto."

I looked out at a circle of samurai with their hands clasped together sitting just as we Jinchuriki sat before. The samurai watched me in awe. Mifune grinned at me.

"How did it go?"

"Pretty well." I said, stretching out. "Where are the other guys? Did they go ahead?"

A very noticeable silence passed.

"Well... Actually, Naruto, you're the first one out."

"Huh?!" I exclaimed.

He nodded solemnly.

"It seems no one else could learn to master their tailed beast." He said.

_Did Mifune get shorter?_

I ran my hand through my hair.

"Well, no worries." I said, turning around. "It's not like we're pressed for time or anything."

"Actually..." Mifune said. "This land is in terrible danger at the moment."

I turned back around quickly.

"The Akatsuki have simultaneously ambushed every ninja village."

"What?!"

He pointed toward a map he had spread out on the table.

"Everything's in chaos. Your village, Konoha, correct? Was ambushed by two akatsuki leaders, Kabuto and Orochimaru, and the cloud, rain, stone, mist and sand villages have all been ambushed."

I clenched my fists.

"They're... They're looking for me... For us... Aren't they?"

"No one is certain yet. The militaries of each land are barely keeping the people alive." He said.

"How could this much have happened in just an hour or two!?" I exclaimed.

Mifune cocked his head.

"An...hour?" he asked. "Naruto, it may have felt like an hour to you in whatever world you were trapped in but for us, for real time, many months have passed."

"What?"

He dragged my hand and pulled me along to the common bathroom.

"Look at yourself."

He pointed at a mirror and my jaw dropped.

"What the hell...?!" I exclaimed.

I touched my face.

_Wasn't it only an hour or so ago I was washing my face here with Gaara and we were talking about how hard the chakra gates test was!? _

"The world is very different from the one you left." Mifune went on.

_How is this possible!?_

"You must proceed with caution."

_I look like I'm sixteen years old! _

I ran my fingers through my longish blonde hair and looked at Mifune.

_He didn't get shorter at all... I'm taller!_

"You must awaken the other Jinchuriki and enter the battlefield along with them." He told me. "If not, you won't stand a chance."

And more importantly, I haven't even trained to see how well I can fight with Kurama... I thought I had a lot more time than this... And the others haven't even woken up...

"We don't have time for this." I said.

And I haven't even figured out how I'm going to get them to realize the secret!

"I can help you there."

Huh? Kurama?

"We can meet with the other Jinchuriki in our minds." Kurama told me. "I'll just call a meeting."

I closed my eyes, almost immediately, I was whisked away. Someone shook me. I stumbled backwards.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed.

A large, dark-skinned man grinned down at me.

"Yo, Naruto!"

"Hey, Bee!" I said, fist bumping him. "Wait... You're already friends with the Eight Tails just fine, right? Why are you still in here?"

He grinned.

"I thought I'd waste a bit of time, hiding from my bro and writing rhymes."

I smiled back, but only for a second.

"We can't waste time here, Bee." I told him. "Every minute we spend in here is like an hour! Almost two years passed out there, Bee! Look at me! I'm a lot older now!"

He shrugged.

"So what if that's true? I'm still older than you."

"There's a war going on!"

Kurama appeared behind me standing next to Killer Bee's Octopus-Ox tailed beast. He nodded, agreeing.

"My village, your village, they're barely managing to stay alive!"

He was serious then. More serious then I'd ever seen him.

"Why is it just you? Shouldn't the others be here, too?"

"They haven't learned how to master it." I said. "We'll have to teach them the secret."

"That's not all we have to do. You all will need to train, too."

Kurama and the eight tails put their hands together like they were weaving some kind of jutsu. Slowly, all the other Jinchuriki and their beasts appeared around us, one by one.

_Sasuke, Hinata, everyone... Wait for me!_


	4. Chapter 4

Sasuke

*War*

People are dying every day…or getting sick…or getting depressed and just ending their lives with their own hands. This kind of environment, this life…it's war. When they taught about the old war times in school… I never imagined something like this. I'm constantly on the battlefield. There's never any time to relax…or think. Just orders upon orders upon orders. Fortunately, because of my status, I wasn't the one getting the orders…I was the one giving them.

As I sat in my tent, I could hear the sounds of war blaring loudly outside. Some distant screams and yells. The rumbling sounds of explosions. I'd gotten accustomed to those sounds. We all had. My eyes swept over the others sleeping seemingly peacefully around me. I stared at the lamp glowing in the center of the large tent. A couple of loud screeches shattered through the night time air.

The person sleeping closest to me jumped out of sleep and looked around shakily.

_Of course... He can never sleep through a night..._

"Go back to bed."

"W-What was that?" he said.

"Just a drill." I lied.

I knew what those sounds meant. The tents closest to the outskirts of our camp were being breeched. We would have to wake up soon and either decide to fight off whoever was trying to ambush us or escape.

He didn't lay back down. Instead he sat there next to me staring at the glowing lamp in front of us and clutched his blanket.

"Sasuke..." he whispered.

"What?"

"Are you...afraid to die?"

His hands were shaking. His brown hair fell over his face, shielding his eyes from mine but somehow, I knew he was crying. I could hear it in his voice, see it in the way he sat.

"Death is a natural thing." I told him. "And as a Shinobi, you've given your life to the cause, to the war, to every comrade you have standing around you."

He slowly looked at me, dark brown eyes shining.

"With so much responsibility, we have no time to feel fear, Konohamaru."

He looked down and nodded.

I was originally against having such a young kid on my team but when Shino and Kankruo died in our battle against Sasori... Two solid spots opened up... And there was no one else.

"I refuse." I told my brother when he gave me the pink slip for a new member. "My team is primarily infiltration, remember? I have no use for weaklings."

"Unfortunately, you don't have a choice. The number of Chunin and Jounin available are dwindling fast...and this one has some promise."

I looked at the slip again; _Konohamaru Sarutobi, Genin, Age Twelve, Nature- Fire Style, Summoning- Monkey , Specialty-Shadow Clone Jutsu, Gifted Ninjutsu User, Decent Taijutsu User, Very Poor Genjutsu User. _

Konohamaru was extremely excited to be allowed onto my renowned team but I'd been exceptionally hard on him, not giving him even the tiniest bit of room to slack off. I didn't want him thinking it was like the old days when Naruto had just left and I got over my loneliness by pulling pranks with him. I was a commander.

"Ever since the Third died, he's really buckled down... Become serious with his studies." Itachi went on.

"Yeah, he better. I don't have time for games." I said, crumpling the sheet. "Have him ready at dawn."

He took my extreme punishments and overly serious attitude without complaints. I expected him to say something like "Come on, Sasuke, what's the big deal?" but he didn't look at me that way even once. It was clear the war had changed him... But that wasn't surprising. The war changed everyone.

Everyone's dying... So many people die each day... Because of that, more and more platoons like mine are being filled with these straight-out-of-the-academy Genin. Kids who smile and grin and pump their fists during the day and shake and cry and whimper at night. Konohamaru was a prime example. I'd never seen him shed one tear before that moment. Even though, the first day he was on my squad, an enemy Sound ninja sliced two of his fingers on his right hand off.

Even Hinata cried for him as she patched up his nubs, but he sat there, like a true ninja and his eyes didn't water even once.

"This is the price of manhood." He told her.

But at night, he was a completely different boy. Jumping at every sound, staying up most of the night clutching his sheets, tossing and turning. But I couldn't deny that he wasn't much different from me. I barely slept at night as well...

Konohamaru finally lay back down next to me. I watched as he moved around, trying to get comfortable.

_I suppose it is the duty of the commander to watch over his subjugates anyway... I'm not allowed sleep._

I remember the day Konoha was almost completely destroyed by Sound ninja posing as Leaf ninja brought to the village by Orochimaru and Kabuto. That day, after successfully leading all the civilians and Genin out of the village, I was promoted to the Special Jounin Forces, basically Anbu level. Itachi succeeded in defeating Orochimaru but Kabuto, a foe even more slippery than Orochimaru, fled and hasn't been seen since. Itachi became the Hokage then... But there wasn't much to be Hokage of. The village was broken. People were scared. No one trusted each other. The same kind of thing happened with all the other villages in the other countries. Cloud, Sand, Rain, Stone, Mist and Leaf... We were all broken and struggling to find order and fight back. It was a seriously losing battle. Often, I woke up surprised to even be finding myself and everyone around me alive.

_But because we are alive, we must continue._

I put the lamp out and pushed myself under my own sheets, finally ready to get a bit of sleep before the infiltrating ninja made their way to our tent.

_I suppose we have about an hour before we're under attack... Again..._

*Pain*

"Get up!" I shouted. "Everyone up, up, now!"

Everyone moaned and groaned but got to their feet. Men and women alike stood next to each other pulling on their Leaf Ninja war outfits and standing in line.

My team was:

"Rock Lee?"

"Roger that!"

"Hinata?"

"Yes."

"Sai?"

"Reporting for duty"

"Kiba?"

"Here"

"Konohamaru?"

"Alright!"

I looked at each and every one of them thoroughly.

I was a war captain in charge of my own platoon. We were a small special operations unit. We all shared one tent apart from all the other tents and left for battle much earlier than everyone else. Instead of fighting the Sound or Rain ninja that the Akatsuki had control over, it was our job to kill the actual Akatsuki members. That was the way war missions usually went. To create a solid opening to stopping this war, the only way was to go straight for each Akatsuki member and destroy them completely. The only problem was... Each Akatsuki member was strong enough to destroy an entire village. But it didn't matter. My platoon was ready for the job.

"Today is an important day." I told them. "Our biggest problem, Pain, a man who can destroy an entire sect of our army just by extending his hand is in our grasp."

Their eyes locked on to me.

"If we succeed in destroying him, it'll be a key piece for winning the entire war. It's all up to us. We're the make it or break it team." I said. "So are we going to go big or go home?"

"Go big!" exclaimed Konohamaru.

"Right!" Rock Lee agreed, ruffling Konohamaru's hair.

We left the tent and ran out. It was difficult to find Pain at all. The first bit of Intel we had was that there were six of them. Jiraiya, the man who had taken Naruto to his summit, passed the information on.

"There's six of them and they can all do different things... But I have a really strange feeling when I'm around them." Jiraiya had said.

Itachi and I sat at the dim table at the HQ station listening to him.

"It's like... the real one isn't among them." He said, tapping his fingers. "I need to go again, for a better look."

"If you believe you can finish it, go." Itachi said. "Best luck to you."

But I guess wishing him luck wasn't the best. That was the last time anyone saw Jiraiya... Tsunade got _so_ angry, she went into battle with a hot-head and took down Kakuzu, a guy with multiple hearts all by herself... Only to be slayed by Pain when she tried to go against him. The war was all on us. Sand, Leaf, Stone, Cloud... 78% of all of us were already dead. Most of which were killed by Pain. If we could take him out... All those people wouldn't be in vain.

"Team!" I called.

Everyone was scattered but I could feel them all tensing up as we ran along, preparing for quick orders. With my Sharingan, I could see all six of them fighting. They each had their own separate techniques...

The first one was the most dangerous one... I saw clearly that it had the power of repulsion and attraction. It destroyed entire villages and towns just by "pushing".

And another looked like they had summoning prowess and was able to bring any animal to aid it in battle.

The next one could turn any body part into any kind of mechanic weaponry to use to fight.

Another one looked like it could somehow yank a person's soul straight out of their head. It was most likely used for memory swiping.

The other seemed to be a chakra absorber, as I could see chakra entering its body from any ninja or Ninjutsu it touched.

The final one was a strange one. It seemed to be grabbing its opponents and forcing their mouths open. Their eyes were stretched wide and opened with fear... What were they seeing?

I mentally assigned each person to one of the Paths as I understood their techniques.

"Kiba, you deal with the summoning one, use Akamaru to evade any serious blows and use your fang over fang to get some openings."

"Got it." He said, running off.

"Rock Lee, you go for the chakra absorber." I told him. "This is right up your alley because you use no Ninjutsu."

"On my way!" he shouted.

"Sai, go for the memory wiping one." I said. "You're a long distance fighter so you won't be close enough to be in danger."

"Very accurate." Sai agreed.

"What do you want me to do?" Konohamaru asked eagerly. "I can kick any of those guys asses!"

I paused, watching the last three fight. The Pain that could turn any body part into a knife or gun or even a rocket launcher was blasting away ninja twenty at a time. The Pain with the attraction and repulsion powers was also a very crazy handful. And the last one, the one paralyzing opponents just by grabbing them was too mysterious.

Konohamaru and Hinata were both close range, heavy Ninjutsu types. Neither of them would fare well against those three who would be easier to fight if kept at a distance. I was considering waiting for Sai to finish up and sending him in to defeat the others one by one.

"You're underestimating us... Aren't you, Sasuke?"

I turned and looked at Hinata. She was looking at me seriously.

"Of course not." I said. "I'm taking precautions."

An explosion sounded, we all turned to see Kiba wrestling and seemingly succeeding at taking down the female summoning Pain. Sai and Lee were also fairing decently against their opponents. The sight gave me a bit of hope.

_Maybe they aren't that strong..._

"Okay, this is what we'll do. The one in the middle that is pushing and pulling is clearly the strongest. We'll destroy that one all together." I said. "So that leaves us with the machine one and the unknown one."

"Unknown?" Hinata asked.

"Yes. The one that seems to be somehow exhausting or killing anyone he grabs."

"That's not him." Hinata said, squinting with her Byakugan. "That's... He's summoned some kind of devil statute."

I strained my Sharingan but I saw nothing.

"It looks like it can be used for interrogation or restoration."

"Restoration?" I asked.

Then suddenly all the reports made sense.

"_No matter how many times they try to destroy the Pains, as soon as they turn their backs, they're all revived again."_

"He's the one." I finally said. "He's reviving them. He's the key to the puzzle."

Clearly, Hinata was correct... I was underestimating them.

"Konohamaru, do your best to destroy the one with the machines." I said. "Hinata, go ahead and try to deal with the restoration one."

They nodded at me.

"I'll be giving back up to each one of you. I know you can do this. Go."

Konohamaru immediately exploded into about twenty clones, probably deciding to overwhelm the opponent with quantity. Hinata dove onto the ground and ran toward her opponent, already enacting her Gentle Fist Lion Beasts.

Kiba looked like he needed help. I ran to him first, already biting my thumb. I slammed my hand to the ground and burst from the cloud of smoke that had formed on the back of Takami. Kiba was dealing with the three headed dog using another three headed dog transformation I'd never seen him use. Their strength seemed to be equally matched and more precariously, the other Pain was summoning a frog to assist her other animal. I dove for the frog steadily myself upon Takami. I placed my left hand on Takami's head and summoned a lung full of hot breath. The moment I blew it out, my hawk blew some air out of her own lungs expanding my fire ball jutsu by at least five times. It washed over the frog, immediately burning it to a crisp, and the Pain, escaping my blast by rolling to the left, was taken into one of the mouths of Kiba's three headed dog transformation. While I had blasted the frog, Kiba had over taken his opponent and was now munching on the Pain with ease, grinding it between its teeth and spitting out the pieces. As I landed on the ground, a single arm landed in front of my feet.

"Yes!" Kiba exclaimed landing on the ground next to me.

To my left, Rock Lee landed fist pumping, then Sai dove over us on his bird nodding.

"You all succeeded?" I asked.

"Team Sasuke is victorious!" Rock Lee replied.

I nodded, allowing myself a grin.

"Perfect. Now...for the restoration one."

My eyes traveled over to Hinata who was fighting the larger Pain that was attempting to grab her. Suddenly, a body flew past her, distracting my view. With the grin still on my lips, my eyes traveled to the fallen body. My smile became skewed.

I was running. Without even commanding them to, all three of them were by my side. We had all seen it. The body that was thrown got to its feet, wiped blood from its mouth and glared angrily at its opponent.

"I'm not finished yet!" he exclaimed.

He darted back, jumping over Hinata and bounding toward the Pain with the machine hands.

_You idiot!_

I could see it before he had even gone. The Pain had been fighting him with both of his hands as bomb blasters, a long distance weapon, but with my Sharingan I could see the chakra dispersing, changing the form. Konohamaru sprinted over using his Spray Fire jutsu. The Pain jumped into the air to avoid it and Konohamaru caught it with some twine, forcing it back down onto him, most likely planning it impale him with a kunai knife. It was perfect form, chunin level transitions and thinking. Something I probably would've done it my youth. But...just not enough. You had to be able to predict every single outcome.

He slammed the Pain down just like he had planned and rose his kunai knife in both hands, smiling in that stupid way he did, thinking he'd had gone, barring down to dive the knife into its neck. And then... The Pain's arm came up. The form had changed, like I had predicted, into a thick knife, a short distance weapon. Konohamaru didn't even have time to react in surprise before it drove upwards and sliced through his arm.

Another scream sounded. I couldn't look anymore, my eyes turned toward Hinata. She was struggling to hold the Pain back, about to get caught in its grip. My eyes flitted back and forth between the two of them.

"Sasuke, what should we do?" Sai asked.

Percentages for their life expectancy formed in front of my eyes.

_Hinata..._

She was kicking at the Pain but her fists were still holding the power of the jutsu. As she pounded her gentle fists, it looked like she had a bit of time, though not much.

_35% of survival _

_Konohamaru..._

He stabbed the thing repeatedly with the Kunai knife in the hand that wasn't completely severed. Blood poured over the both of them. But it was already bringing the knife back around toward Konohamaru's other arm.

_Less than 10% survival chance..._

"Sasuke?!"

I looked around the battlefield, it was almost completely barren, too many troops had backed out, run to the nearest HQ. Probably out of supplies...or out of teammates.

"Stay here." I ordered. "I don't want you twisted up in the decision I make."

"Huh?" Kiba asked.

But they followed my orders and stopped. I was running for Hinata, trying to get there in time but then I made the mistake of glancing at Konohamaru again. He was screaming, strangely, as though he had time, he looked up... Our eyes locked.

Dammit!

I turned toward him. Takami who had been flying overhead swooped over me, I grabbed her foot and flew over to him.

"_Are you...afraid to die?"_

He quickly thrust his right arm up, and I stretched my arm toward him.

_Please... _

Two things happened. My hand grasped his, but the moment it did, the Pain looming under him was able to thrust it's arm up straight into his abdomen...just like how I predicted it would. I pulled him up, bringing him onto the hawk behind me and turned Takami around.

"Go for Hinata!" I ordered.

Her feet were quivering, dangling about two feet off the ground. The Pain had its hand wrapped around her neck.

_No..._

We swooped past her and Takami grabbed Hinata's vest in her beak. We flew back down toward the ground. Kiba followed us on Akamaru and Rock Lee and Sai flew on his ink bird next to us.

"Head toward the nearest HQ." I said.

*The Fallen*

Konohamaru had died before we even made it back to the HQ. Behind me on the hawk, he was straining to breath, sucking in breath but not retaining oxygen. I pushed on his chest, trying to stop his bleeding but it wasn't working. With his missing arm, he was losing way too much blood. He stared up at me tearfully. Rock Lee and Sai flying near me kept yelling for him to hold on but I was the only one who could see that there was no way. He lips were moving but there was no sound. None. Just the tears continuing to spill from his eyes.

"I lied." I told him.

Right before the final bits of light were leaving his eyes I said that.

"I am afraid." I confessed.

And then he was still.

Hinata wasn't moving that entire time. In the medical wing of the HQ, they had diagnosed her brain dead.

"What exactly does that mean?" Kiba asked.

"It means she's incoherent." The medical ninja told me. "She's alive. Her heart is pumping blood and everything but she's not...responding."

"When is she going to wake up?" Rock Lee wondered.

The medical ninja looked away from us awkwardly.

"Hopefully in three days." One said.

"Why in three days?" Sai asked.

"Because by then, we'll most likely have given her bed to someone else." The other replied.

"You can't do that!"

"They can." I told them.

I finally spoke up, eyes set on her irresponsive face.

"People are getting injured as we speak. They don't have room for someone that for all we know may never wake up." I said.

My mind went back to my decision to save Konohamaru first and instead, I played it out in my head like I successfully saved him and her both and we defeated all the Pain's and were back at home living happily and peacefully. I even tossed Naruto in there, coming back all safe and sound.

"Wouldn't life be great with a reset button?" I mumbled tonelessly.

Everyone stared at me like I had completely lost my mind.

Naruto

*Team Jinchuriki*

We were all running through the forests jumping over and above the trees.

"Saiken tells me the battlefield is completely barren." Utakata told me.

"How do you figure that, Bubble boy?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes, irritated by my nickname.

"The bubbles can carry conversation waves." He responded. "Anyway... It looks bad."

I grinned.

"Scared?"

"Heck no!" Fuu exclaimed. "Let's get in there and bust some heads!"

"That's what I'm talking about!"

"Just a couple more miles, and we'll be showing our free styles!" Killer Bee cheered.

In the distance, I suddenly saw a light blue flash of light.

"Wait! Move!"

I dodged to the right and we all barely made it out of the way of a large fire blast.

"What was that?" Gaara asked.

A figure appeared in front of us. An orange haired man with piercings all over his face and large purple eyes.

"Jinchuriki..." he said emotionlessly. "We've been waiting."

Suddenly, five other orange haired people came out of the forest and met us in the middle of the large empty field. We faced off. All nine of us against just five of them.

_Looks easy enough... But easy things aren't always easy..._

"Guys... Let's show them what we're made of!" I yelled.

We all rushed toward them like a wave. As we fought, I recorded the powers of each of them mentally, one use machines, one used pushing and pulling, another used summoning... The one I was dealing with kept trying to grab me, it seemed like it was trying to implement some kind of short distance technique. It stepped toward me and right at that time, one of Utakata's bubbles floated past me, I ducked, avoiding it.

"Yo! Watch where you're-"

Before I could finish, the thing had already swooped under me and grabbed my neck. My feet left the ground and suddenly behind it I could see a large gate.

"Now...answer questions, if you lie-"

"You really think you caught me?" I asked, catching him off guard.

Kurama, now!

Bijuu mode washed over me and I simultaneously hit him with a Rasengan.

He blew backwards and let me go. I jumped high into the air and formed multiple rasengans and slammed them all down onto his breaking him into multiple pieces. The other Jinchuriki were ganging up on the summoning one and taking the others down with ease. Only one was left, the repulsion one.

"Let's do this guy like how we practiced." Gaara said.

"Okay!" we all exclaimed.

We came toward him on all directions forcing him to extend his hands like we predicted and try to repulse us but we already jumped away and got out of range then we, paired with our tailed beasts, immediately began forming Bijuu Damas.

But as we did so, something became apparent to me. I sensed it... Evil intent sky rocketing high from a point around ten miles away. It spiked the moment we released our Bijuu Damas and blew the Pain in front of us to pieces.

We all gathered together. Yugito rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"People were dying because of these weaklings?" she asked. "What kind of shit is this?"

"Maybe we're just ultra strong right now." Yagura suggested.

Han shrugged.

"Well, let's go see if anyone needs our assistance in the HQ." he said.

"Alright, I'll meet you guys over there." I said. "There's something I have to check on."

Roshi raised his eyebrow.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded.

"Perfectly. Go ahead!"

Gaara and Bee stared at me for the longest but eventually nodded and ran off with the rest. I turned searching for the evil intent I'd felt earlier deeply. It was faint at that time but I still felt it. I sped right toward it sensing that it was very similar to the opponents we had been fighting.

_Are there more than six Pains?_

I recalled Ero Senin telling me that he had felt something strange when beating the six pains.

"It was as if...the real one wasn't there."

*Naruto vs. The Final Pain*

I ran along and slowly got to a tree more than eighty feet tall. I approached a hole shaped a lot like a large hole door and went inside.

"Nine Tails... I had been waiting."

I wrinkled my nose.

"I kind of get what you mean now, Kurama. It is annoying when people don't call you by your name."

I came face to face with a greately emanciated man and a woman with purple hair standing next to him. The man was hooked up to some kind of life support, looking like he was less than a few hours away from death.

"You're the last Pain, aren't you?" I asked.

"Something like that."

I smirked.

"Great, looks like Ero Sennin was right after all! Though it is kind of weird that he wouldn't just finish you off himself if he knew this..." I mused.

"Ero-Senin?" the man asked. "Are you speaking of Jiraiya Sensei?"

My eyebrows popped up.

"You know him?"

"He was my Sensei a very long time ago." He revealed.

"Strange. Why would you fight against him then?"

"It was a very, very long time ago." He said.

Suddenly, something clicked inside my brain. It was a sublte click. I squinted at him precariously.

"Maybe not that long... If you didn't go through with killing each other."

He cocked his head.

"Oh, he is very much deceased."

And strangely, I didn't believe him. The man sensed that.

"I destroyed him when he came back to fight me the second time, realizing that he hadn't completely eradicated all of my bodies. That woman, Tsunade, recently came to avenge him. She met her ultimate demise as well. Now... Are you here to avenge him as well?"

But there wasn't any way to disprove that. There wasn't any way to disprove anything that he was saying. I didn't spend an extra long time with Jiraiya or Tsunade but I did begin thinking of them as something like parents while I was with them. Their absence... The cruelty of it hurt me. And it made me want to get back home to Sasuke and Fugaku-san and Mikoto-san even more.

"Is that why you're here?" he asked.

"You really killed him?" I asked.

"Yes."

I reached toward him then, my fingers extending. A chakra hand extended from me as well The purple haired woman immediately jumped in front of him, shielding him from harm but my chakra hand swatted her out of the way like the bug she was. I closed my fingers, hand closing around his body and ripping him from the life support. I lay him at my feet in the middle of the room and formed a Rasengan in my right hand.

"He taught me this technique, so I suppose it would be fitting to kill you with it." I said.

The purple haired woman got back to her feet only to be hit by a two Rasengan's I formed with two different chakra hands. She wasn't moving after that. He put his hand together, ignoring my words, whispering some kind of incantation.

"When you get to hell, make sure you tell him who sent you there." I said before I blasted the Rasengan into his chest.

*Captured!*

I took my time walking through the field stricken with the proof of war. Blood, kunai knives, shuriken and remnants of Ninjutsu were strewn all over the grass, trees and fields. And while I was walking through the nature with my hands in my pockets hoping that snapping both of their necks would be enough to ensure their deaths, the ground began shaking. I looked back toward the gigantic tree.

"Damn! What does it take to kill these guys?"

But the sound wasn't coming from that direction... Instead...

I turned back to the area that I'd left my friends and realized with a shock that it was where the sound was emerging. I blasted back into Bijuu Mode and sprinted through the trees zigzagging past the corpses and weapons and tools. The ground was shaking more. The sky overhead seemed to be darkening. I looked up and my mouth almost dropped open at what I saw.

There was a tree spurting from the ground, a tree that was almost five times taller than the one the final Pain had been hiding in. It's branches were swinging around wilding and standing on the trunk of it was one man.

"Relax Jinchuriki! This is your fate!"

I skidded into the field to see the roots of the tree taking hold of them, wrapping tightly around their waists.

Fu pounded on the branches with her hands but it was no use, right in front of my eyes her body seemed to be getting sucked dry of its life force. She fell over limply in the arms of the branch and was sucked down through the ground. Gaara and Bee were getting together to try to attack it with a team Bijuu Dama but when they did, the man did some kind of technique forming a ghost like rib cage with a blue hue that surrounded the entire tree and then rose up into the body of some kind of God. It had two faces and four arms and protected the tree like a guard. The man laughed.

"Nice try but unfortunately... Your time is up."

My eyes widened. The branches were coming for them, wrapping around them.

I have a decision... I can either help them or run and tell HQ what's happened.

But the answer to the decision was set before I even blinked.

I was running, feet pounding against the soft grass and I searched as hard as I could for a single focal point and found one with at least two hundred people there. And to my elation, I also felt Sasuke's presence.

But this won't be a happy reunion...

*Give Up*

"Is anyone listening to me!?"

They all looked up, staring at me blankly.

"There's a gigantic tree out there sucking up everyone's chakra!" I exclaimed.

The ground shook again. It was getting closer. The lights in the room flickered. People were whimpering, grabbing their hair or putting their hands together in prayer. Not the Kage's of course, just injured people who were lying around on the in the discussion room because the medical rooms had all run out of space.

"You said that the Jinchuriki were absorbed into it? ...Including my brother?" The Raikage, Killer Bee's brother asked me.

I nodded slowly.

"And even my son?" The Kazekage asked.

I nodded again.

"Gaara, Bee, everyone... They're all..."

"But you collectively defeated all the Pains?" the Mizukage asked me.

I nodded.

"Well, Pain defeated most of us and the Jinchuriki defeated Pain and now the Jinchuriki are being defeated by this new living tree being controlled by a man, there doesn't seem to be anything we can do..."

A short old man, the Tschuikage, who had been silent all this time spoke up.

"What did this man controlling the tree look like?"

"Long black hair." I said and...

And then suddenly, I remembered what I had seen.

"And he had Sharingans. He was an Uchiha." I told them.

All the Kage nodded at each other.

"Madara." Said the short old man. "No one else it could be except him."

"And if that's the case..." the Kazekage spoke up. "We lost a long time ago."

And if solidifying that idea, a voice broke through the air.

"Attention!"

We all froze. The lights in the room succeeded in fizzing out.

"This is Madara Uchiha." The voice said. "I'm coming to make sure you're all aware that my plan, the Infinite Tsguyomi plan, is only minutes away from being complete."

Infinite what?

"Many people have fallen. On my side as well as yours, now there's just me. And just the few of you who are left. Instead of allowing any more death, leave the hovel you're all hiding in and come out like true warriors. As the Akatsuki has told the Kage's, the Moon's Eye Plan will be one that will stop all your suffering, all your grieving, you will be given the ideal world you desire. A world with no pain, no hardship. A world of your complete liking."

A perfect world?

"I can make that happen for you. In fact, it will be happening whether you like it or not. Only minutes now and you'll all be set free, the few of you whom are still alive. If you still have some fight left in you, I'll be waiting. But I assure you, the most comfortable solution will be to stand and wait along with me. The End is Neigh."

The lights flickered back on. I noticed a couple of small branches slithering back from the window and realized that he'd used the tree to project his voice.

"Well, then, clearly..." Shukaku, Shikamru's Father spoke up. "There's not much we can do except die with honor."

My face exploded into disbelief.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

Raikagen nodded and stood up, tightening his wrist bands. All the other Kages slowly got to their feet, even the small old looking one.

"We don't have a plan?" I asked.

"Of course we do." The old small one said. "Our plan is to die like a true warrior. Stand everyone. Tell the ones who are able that we're moving out in fifteen minutes."

Mizukage paused next to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Why don't you go find your girlfriend or something and give her a kiss?" she told me. "This might be your last chance to do so."

_Girlfriend? _

Instead of a girl, the first face that flashed in front of my eyes was Sasuke's. But along with Sasuke's face came another thought.

"Where's Itachi?" I asked.

Mizukage's hand tightened on my shoulder. Raikage frowned and shook his head at me.

"An Akatsuki member we didn't anticipate who had initially been impersonating Madara took him down just yesterday. No one knows yet."

_No one?_

I rushed out of the HQ room and sped down the corridor, people were sitting against either wall staring into the blank nothingness of their lives. The ground trembled again and the lights flickered. I realized I didn't know where I was going and tried to go into Bijuu mode momentarily to search for his presence, that single light that felt somewhat like a hot flame. But no matter how hard I tried it wouldn't enact.

"Naruto? Is that you?"

I turned, skidding to a stop next to him.

"Hey, Shikamaru." I said.

He smiled.

"By the look on your face, I already know who you're looking for... He's in here. I was just talking to him but don't expect him to be-"

I wasn't listening, I was already forcing the door open.

"Sasuke!"

The room he was sitting in was small, barely big enough for the bed he was sitting on. His head was down and in one hand he held a small necklace. He stiffened at the sound of my voice.

"You're...way too late."

I walked further into the room, shocked to my core at the sound of his voice. Of course it was deeper, we were older. But where was the tone? Where was the feeling? Where was...anything?

"They're all dead." He whispered, finally looking up. "Everyone."

And if his voice wasn't enough, his face almost killed me. Tear streaked and blood stained but more than that, his eyes were completely empty.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "It's only Itachi."

He stiffened again and clutched his head as though it were hurting him to even think about it.

"That one...Shikamaru just told me." he said through clenched teeth. "But the others..."

My heart beat faster, I could feel the sweat collecting at my finger tips. My hair stuck damply to my forehead.

"Mom...Dad..."

"Them?" he asked. "They've been long gone... Father was killed when Konoha was destroyed and Mother died soon after...she wouldn't eat...she wouldn't eat...no matter what I or Itachi did, she wouldn't..."

I walked up to him grabbing his shoulders.

"Look at me." I said.

He had been staring at the wall behind me but he forced himself to look into my eyes.

"It's alright, we can make everything better." But even as I spoke, the ground tremors began again. In the small window behind him, I could see ninja being led by some of the Kage's, they were all making their way toward the tree, opting to "die trying".

"Hinata also." He said.

"W-What?"

"She won't wake up." He said. "Brain dead."

He knocked my hands away and gripped the necklace in his hand tightly.

"And... And they just came to tell me they can't find her... Satomi. She's missing."

He shook his head and turned from me, lying back down on the bed.

"I'm not going anywhere." He whispered.

I could hear screaming in the distance, people probably already getting drained by the massive tree and branches.

The voice sounded again.

"The few of you who have come are doing good!" Madara announced using the branches. "Now everyone, join us! This will be The End... The End of all the pain."

"I'm not going anywhere." Sasuke repeated.

Crumbs of the ceiling fell down onto the ground. People were still leaving the building, walking out.

"We have to try..." I told him.

"Do we really?" Sasuke asked me. "What's the point?"

"Are you going insane?"

"Most likely."

But even as I said it to him, I wondered in my head if he was right. Even if we did destroy the evil and triumph, there would be some people who would never come home, in fact, most people would never come home. Things would be different. We'd both be without a family. No one to go home to... No one to go home to...

"But...if we don't try, what about all the people who died? We can't let them all die in vain." I told him.

He turned to me, tears nesting in on the edges of his eyes.

"I'd rather give up and go see them then keep trying just to live in a world without them."

"What about me?" I asked. "I'm here."

"You're too late." He said turning back over.

And that kept hurting me, like he was stabbing me with a million knives.

_I wanted to be here... I really wanted to. Even now, I wish I could turn back the hands of time and go back to when we were at the Chunin Exams or even further, when we used to share a room and I would be there with you all the time. It's been years since I've seen you and even if we do go out there and fight one of us could die and I realize now that... That..._

I touched his shoulder.

"No matter what you do, I'm not-"

"Move over." I said, cutting him off.

He raised his head, giving me a questioning look but rolled over anyway. I got up onto the bed with him curled up next to him. My mind flashed back to when Mikoto san read stories to us and we'd hold hands and listen. I reached for his hand.

"If you could have any kind of world you wanted, what would it be?" I asked him.

He was silent. The entire building was silent. I realized that everyone who was able probably already left and the only people in the building other than us were corpses.

"A world where we were both strong enough to fight...even if the odds are against us." Sasuke said.

_For a world like that, wouldn't that mean we'd have to feel more pain? And just be resilient to that pain? _

"What about you?" he whispered.

There had been a low humming sound, but it was getting increasingly louder and louder. The sky almost looked like it was glowing. Sasuke was facing me and not the window so he didn't notice. I brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes.

"A world where I would never let you go." I whispered. "No matter what."

His grip on my hand strengthened. I moved closer to him and closed my eyes. The humming was blaring loudly in our ears then. I felt his lips on my forehead, cool and damp. The ground shook heavily and then, very abruptly, there was nothing to be heard or felt or seen. Nothing at all.

*Awakening*

I breathed deeply, like I'd been deprived of oxygen for a long time. I blinked. Trees overhead swayed lightly. Leaves were falling overhead and floating softly, finding their way down, down, down and next to me lying at the base of the tree.

"Finally, you're up."

I turned and locked eyes with him. Him... Wearing that short sleeved blue collared shirt he used to wear when we were young. Young... He was young. I looked down at myself and touched my chest. I wore an orange and blue jumpsuit. I was also young.

"I wasn't watching you or anything if that's what you're thinking." He muttered, looking away from me."

"Sasuke?"

"What?"

"What's...going on...?" I asked, scratching my head.

He sighed.

"I caught you sleeping on a mission again." He said, getting to his feet. "Now come on, Kakashi and Sakura are waiting."

I blinked.

"Don't you mean Kakashi and Hinata?"

He squinted at me.

"Did you hit your head on that tree and _knock _yourself out? I mean_ Sakura_."

I stared at him blankly.

"The pink haired girl you're always saying you want to ask out on a date."

And then, very suddenly, memories of her began inching into my brain.

_Right, right, right... Sakura... The other member of Team 7._

I nodded vigorously and got to my feet.

"Did you have a weird dream?" he asked me.

"It wasn't a dream." I said. "It was about Infinite Tsguyomi. It was really important, you and I were-"

Suddenly, Kakashi poofed up in front of us with the help of that instant transmission jutsu he often used.

"I see you found Naruto. Good Job, Sasuke."

Sakura came up behind him and took her place next to Sasuke.

"So, I was thinking when all this is over...wanna have dinner at my house, Sasuke?"

"No." he muttered.

She pouted.

"I was just thinking since you don't have anyone at home, I could introduce you to my family."

"No thanks." He said quickly.

_...Family? Strangely, that word is making me remember something..._

As I walked with Sasuke, Kakashi and Sakura, I smiled realizing what it was.

_Oh yeah! These guys are like my family. _

_Sasuke's like my brother, Sakura's like my sister and Kakashi's like the weird Uncle who's always reading..._

"Naruto."

I looked over at Sasuke who was giving me a weird look.

"Didn't you say you had some weird dream?"

"What?" I asked, completely clueless.

"Yeah, something about Hinata?" he asked.

Sakura's eyes popped up.

"You were dreaming about Hinata?!" she exclaimed.

"I was?" I asked cocking my head. "I don't remember..."

"You said it was important. Infinite Tsgu-something." He tried to remind me.

I thought hard, my brain was grabbing at wisps of something but not a complete picture. Almost like it was all just a dream...

I finally just shrugged and put my hands behind my head.

"Ehhh, probably wasn't that important." I replied.

The End.

(Author's Note: Hopefully, The End of this makes sense to you. I've always wanted to end a story with Infinite Tsguyomi. My other story, American Konoha, is my favorite Alt. Universe but it's nothing like your average Konoha High School story. I'm sure you'll love it!)


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